


The City Over the Mountain

by Zippit



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Future, Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Community: fmabigbang, Established Relationship, Fullmetal Alchemist Big Bang Challenge, Future Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-05 05:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zippit/pseuds/Zippit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a clandestine mission to Aerugo doesn't go as planned, Roy and Ed stumble upon an unknown civilization with unexpected ties to their past and designs on their future that may not allow them to return to Amestris.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bob_fish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bob_fish/gifts).



> This was inspired by [](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bob_fish/profile)[](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bob_fish)**bob_fish** 's wonderful art that can be found [here](http://bob-fish.livejournal.com/86282.html) along with an additional illustration for the fic. It was a joy and such a pleasure to work with such wonderful art and the lovely bob_fish.
> 
>  
> 
> Written for the 2012 round of [fmabigbang](http://fmabigbang.livejournal.com).

The wind's blowing in his face and his grip on the chains is slick. The "path" under his feet is barely two boards wide and on top of it all he's fucking tired. "Who's bright idea was it to climb up the side of a damn mountain again?" Ed mutters under his breath.

"I believe it was yours, Edward," comes the dry response from behind him.

"WHAT?! No way are you blaming this on me! It was just as much your idea as mine." Ed turns to glare at Mustang and releases one hand from the chains to point an accusing finger at the bastard. His other hand remains clutching the chain handrail staked into the cliffside.

"It wasn't my desire to chase after idle speculation," Roy says mildly with that stupid bland look on his face.

"The Aerugian research into alchemical and alkahestrical amplifiers showed promise! Even if it was a little unrefined, I can probably figure out where they went wrong once I get a look at the raw data."

"Alchemical research from a country that has few high caliber alchemists? It can hardly be trusted, Edward."

"And what if they're onto something? What if they stumbled onto something that actually matters?" Ed shakes his head. "I'm not taking that risk. I want a look at that research." He scowls. "I don't see why you're even here. Isn't this sorta mission below your rank or something?"

"Contrary to your belief, I am still a skilled alchemist and I wouldn't mind a look at the research either." He doesn't believe Mustang for one second. There's more to this than he's saying but he'll probably never get it out of him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Ed waves a hand at him then shifts to face forward again and inch along the precarious path. "Still don't see why you had to come with me. You would've gotten a report on the research." Annoyance has him paying less attention to the wood underneath his feet than he was before and his next step sends up a sharp crack. Ed jerks his gaze downwards just as the board splinters into two and the world drops out from under him. The chain slips from his grasping fingers and he stares as the coral grit of the mountainside blurs in his vision. He flails for something, anything to grab onto. Al's going to _kill_ him for this. He distantly hears Mustang's voice shouting his name. and barely registers the crackle of alchemy in the air before he slams into something below him.

His breath whooshes out of him and he stares dazed at the fact the sky isn't still moving away from him. He coughs out a "wha?" It takes him a moment longer to press his hands to whatever surface is holding him up and push himself up to twist and take a look. What he sees confuses him. An inelegant hand juts from the mountainside and obviously broke his fall, but where did it come from? He looks back up to Mustang, who has one arm looped through the chain and the other hand pressed to the cliffside, and calls out to him. "You ok?"

His voice is steadier than he thought it would be and Mustang's reply is biting. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't do anything else that takes several years off my life, Fullmetal." Ed scowls back up at him. It wasn't his fault the damn boards broke. It was whoever was stupid enough to build the path along the mountainside with nothing but boards and chains.

"Shut up, bastard. I'm the one that nearly died here." He claps his hands together then presses it to the stone beneath him. The stone a few feet in front of him rises and forms a series of steps back up to the wooden path. He brushes his hands off then climbs the steps carefully back up to rejoin Mustang. He wraps an arm around the chain, and once he has a secure grip he transmutes the stone hand back into the mountain. He leaves enough stone to fill in the break in the boards, just in case they need to come back this way. "I keep forgetting you can do alchemy the same way I can now."

"It's a good thing considering what just happened." Ed's facing Mustang and scowls at him. He gives Mustang the finger with his free hand. He doesn't need this crap from the bastard right now. He just wants to get off the side of this damn mountain and back on firm ground. "I suggest we hurry along before any more mishaps happen."

Ed rolls his eyes but the bastard has a point. He moves carefully hand over hand and one foot in front of the other until they reach a break in the mountainside. The chain and boards continue on before them but there's also a wide rock strewn path that leads upwards. "What do you think? Keep going or camp here for the night?"

"Camp might be the better option." He hears the rattle of an almost empty canteen and he turns his head to look at Mustang. "We're also running a little low on water. We should see if we can find a stream and refill."

"Camp it is." Ed steps off the boards and onto solid ground again. His legs tremble and he has to steady himself against a large boulder. That fall off the mountain had a greater impact on him than he'd thought. But Mustang doesn’t need to know that. He rests his hands on his hips then looks up the trail that disappears into the distance. "What do you think is up there?"

"No clue, Edward. But let's go find out." Ed watches as Mustang takes a drink from his canteen then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He hooks the canteen back to his pack then readjusts the straps before setting off. Ed shifts his shoulders to adjust his own straps before he follows.

They hike in silence between the rocks and rare tufts of spare grass trying to poke through the dirt. The mountains of Aerugo are seriously warmer than the ones of Drachma but he still wasn't expecting the almost balmy weather. The wind whistles past them and cools the sweat on Ed's skin to freezing. It's still just as hazardous though.

The sound of running water distracts him from his thoughts and he looks at Mustang to see he's heard it too. They both set off in the direction of the sound, which is to the left of the rocky trail they were on. The surroundings begin to green and even an occasional stunted tree greets them. The area continues to open up until it unfolds into a clearing with the spring trickling through its center. It doesn't look like it should belong on a mountaintop but whatever, he's not complaining.

Mustang's walking around the edge of the clearing doing who knows what. Ed walks right over to the water and kneels to dip his hand into it. It's surprisingly warm for what he'd assumed was ice melt. He slides both hands into the stream and splashes some on his face. It feels good after their hike. He slips the pack straps off his shoulders and sets it on a nearby rock so he can dunk his face. "Fuck, that feels good."

"I'll bet" comes the dry reply from somewhere to his right. He twists quickly to look at Mustang sitting a few paces away from him. "An odd little clearing here but perfectly suited for our purposes."

Mustang looks as refreshed as he does so he must've splashed the water on himself too. Right now he's uncapping one of the numerous canteens they brought with them and is filling it up to the brim. "Better than trying not to fall off that path while we tried to sleep." Ed stretches out on the ground and leans back onto his pack. "Who do you think built that stupid path anyway? It can't have been that useful."

Mustang looks back the way they came and shrugs. "I have no idea but this route had to be important to someone. They went to the trouble of installing the boards and chains after all." He caps the canteen then reaches for another to repeat the filling process. "We'll probably never know."

"Hmm" is the only comment Ed makes and he's probably right. He continues to watch the steady repeated motions of Mustang's hands as he fills all the canteens. They'd been lucky to not run out sooner than this. When they'd set out on this path neither of them had expected it to take this long or be this treacherous. If he thought about it he has to wonder if it doesn't take them from one side of the mountain to the other.

Ed shakes his head then sits forward to pull his pack out from behind him and undoes the top flap to pull out his own canteens. He begins his own refilling process and while the extra weight is annoying to carry they need it if they plan on surviving. Their expected rendezvous to get across the border hadn't panned out. They're lucky they weren't sold out to the highest paying corrupt government official wanting to have both him and Mustang at their mercy. "You ever hear anything about this mountain?"

"Not that I recall. It was always just another landmark between Amestris and Aerugian borders." There's a crinkle of plastic and the brief crunch of something snapping. Ed looks up to see Mustang biting into one of the travel rations they brought with them. They also have plenty of those too, but he'd like to be off the mountain before they get anywhere close to running out. He hadn’t seen any signs of animals around. He doesn't want to think about how difficult it'd be to attempt hunting.

"No local legends or anything? You know more about this stuff than I do." He caps the last canteen then sets it beside the others to dry before putting them back into his pack. He brushes his hands against his pants to wipe the moisture from them.

"I wasn't the one chasing down the impossible for years, Edward. I expected you to be the authority on things like that." Ed looks at him and he says it with such simplicity he can't justify scowling at him.

He shrugs and just then his stomach takes the moment to make itself known with a loud growl. "Yeah, well there wasn't much time for _recreational_ reading, you know." He sticks a hand into one of the side pockets and pulls out several rations for himself. It'd been a bitch to try and balance the weight he could carry with all the supplies he needed against all the other potential equipment they might need.

When he looks back to Mustang he's smiling at him faintly like whatever he'd just done had been something amusing. He frowns at him. All he'd done was look for food. Whatever. They just need to get this whole thing over, and then they can go back to Mustang doing terrifying political things and being too tired from his day to come home and judge Ed. "You were the one sending us all over the place. You had to have read something about it."

It's Mustang's turn to shrug as he brushes the crumbs off his hands. "I had my own plans and there's a mountain of paperwork that accompanies leading a unit."

Ed rolls his eyes at the insult. "Yeah, whatever. Didn't want to deal with other people. They only mess things up. So basically you had them read whatever shit you needed?"

A frown appears on Mustang's face. "No, because your situation was...far too sensitive for outside eyes. I didn't want any information to be accidentally revealed about your intentions."

"Uh huh." Ed's giving Mustang more shit than he deserves since he knows damn well he and his unit have considered him part of things for far longer than he thought he was. It's part of the reason why he did decide to stay enlisted. Well, after a year of relearning how to use his arm. Sometimes, he misses the automail. It would've made some things a lot easier. He's still not sure how he walked away from the Gate still possessing his alchemy. His last thought had been giving it up in exchange for Al's body. It’d been the only answer.

Ed gets to his feet and stretches his arms over his head then bends side to side. He's glad to be able to move more than a few inches in any direction. He glances at Mustang as he starts to unfold the tent they'll use tonight and leaves him to it. He's a damn general. He can handle a tent by himself. It's his turn to explore the clearing.

Ed first walks beside the stream through the clearing where bright grass grows on either side and spreads until it touches the reddish hue of the mountain surroundings on all sides. Trees shorter than those in Amestris but tall and full for this area gather in groups. If they need wood they'll definitely have plenty.

The stream disappears into a narrow gap in the mountainside. Ed kneels down beside it, a hand braced against the still warm rock, and peers into the dark gap. He can't tell if there's anything beyond it, and he can't hear anything but trickling water. He taps his hand against the rock then pushes to his feet. He heads toward the nearest group of trees and the soft trilling of birdsong comes from overhead. It all feels too idyllic. Al would call him too cynical, but you don't just find a perfect place to camp for the night like this.

He scowls and brushes his bangs back from his forehead and steps between the trees. Their spacing doesn't hint at artificial placement but who knows? It might've been years since they were actually planted. He raps his knuckles against some of the trees he passes and they sound like they're solid. The branches that scratch and catch at him feel pretty damn real too. He shoves through a couple bushes and looks for any sticks to start a fire. Mustang could probably set a whole bunch on fire at once, but no point in using more than they need.

He finally manages to gather a handful of branches and sticks and makes his way back to their little campsite. Mustang's got the tent set up and both their packs tucked inside from the looks of it. He's sitting and reading the report about this whole adventure of theirs. Ed drops his armload of wood then scouts around for some rocks to ring the fire. Once he's satisfied with that he just looks at Mustang.

He has to admit that having the Flame Alchemist around makes a fire a lot easier to get started. Though maybe they don't even really need one. These mountains are warm and they don't know how much the temperature drops at night. "Anything in there about the mountain?"

Mustang folds back the page into position and looks at him. "Not particularly. I was reviewing the details for our escort. From all indications he was a reliable transport into Aerugo."

"Yeah, well, he wasn't there and left us high and dry." He settles on the soft grass beside Mustang and holds out his hand for the report. He'd glanced at it briefly before they set out but hadn't really processed the details. It's what Mustang was here for anyway. He was here for the science. Mustang slides the report into his hand and Ed starts reading from the beginning.

"See anything I missed?"

Ed shakes his head. "Just what we already know. The possible alchemic enhancers, when and where to meet our contact, and what he'd look like. Nothing out of the ordinary." He twists at the grass beside him and pulls up a few blades. "You tell me, shouldn't it have gone off without a hitch?"

"Yes. We'd carefully screened for possible complications and eliminated the more unsuitable candidates until we found the best option." Mustang glances around the clearing then reaches to take the report back. Ed hands it over without a word. Something this simple shouldn't have gone wrong. It’s like they're missing something big, but he doesn't know what it could be. If even Mustang can't figure it out then maybe it's just him being paranoid.

"You feel it too, don't you?" Ed waves his hand around at the clearing when Mustang gives him a confused look. "This place. It feels too perfect. Like something's gotta be wrong with it." That earns him an arched eyebrow and Ed rolls his eyes right back at him. "C'mon, you feel it. You can't tell me you don't. It feels too perfect, too...normal."

"There...is a sense that this place isn't what it seems, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's not normal." Well, they agree somewhat. It's better than nothing. "Perhaps we're too used to dealing with treason and intrigue at every corner."

"Says a hell of a lot about what we deal with every day, doesn't it?" They're jumping at shadows because it's all too perfect. Maybe they finally lucked out for once instead of having shit thrown their way all the time.

"Politics was never a pristine career path."

"But you did it anyway. Why? You can't tell me that even your bastard ass had that big of idealistic blinders on."

"You know why, Edward. I vowed to protect the people who couldn't protect themselves. If you remember, you started espousing those same ideals yourself."

He’s about to tell him it’s completely different when there’s a soft snap of a branch that diverts his attention. Ed scans the wilderness around them and then can’t believe his eyes. A black fox walks out delicately from one of the clusters of trees and shows absolutely no fear as it moves past them to drink from the water.

No wild animal Ed’s ever encountered in his life treats humans with that much careless confidence. He hardly dares to breathe as he murmurs, “Mustang…you see this too?”

“Edward, it’s simply a fox obtaining some water.”

He scowls. Does Mustang not see? Has he been cloistered up in the city for too long? Obviously he needs to drag his ass out of the office more often. Doesn’t he know animals? “C’mon, Mustang. No animal ever acts like that.”

“You don’t know what’s normal for them here. This is a remote location and we haven’t posed a threat since it made its presence known.” Ed rolls his eyes, his attention still fixed on the fox. Leave it to Mustang to miss the obvious in favor of something that makes no sense.

He mutters low. “Political plots have gone to your head.” He keeps extremely still and watches as the fox finishes drinking and lifts its head to look at him. Its ears had never stopped swiveling back and forth between him and Mustang. He can’t explain it, but he swears the fox was listening to them. He can’t break free from the fox’s gaze and then he realizes another thing. It’s black from head to toe. Something else he’s never seen. It’s not great camouflage and in this clearing? What good would it do? It should’ve fallen prey to some other species long before he and Mustang stumbled upon this place.

“Edward…,” Mustang starts but Ed cuts him off with a hissed “sssssh” and a sharp motion of his hand. He knows this is more than Mustang thinks it is. He just knows, and he’ll be damned if he does something to piss off whatever this fox really represents. He’s encountered enough strange shit in his life to have a healthy wariness of anything that can’t be easily explained.

Mustang makes another low sound and he doesn’t care. As long as he doesn’t move. He catches him turning slowly to watch the fox with him. He’s pretty sure he’ll hear Mustang bitch about his irrationality later, but he’ll deal with that then. The fox’s tail flicks to one side and it gives a short yip. Once again it’s the rustle of bush that gets Ed’s attention. His head whips around to where the fox first appeared and now stepping into view is another one. This one’s gold in color and it eyes them more warily than the other, never letting its eyes drop from them even as it makes its way to the stream. There’s even a hint of teeth.

It drops its head to drink once it reaches the black fox’s side, and if Mustang can’t see this isn’t normal then he doesn’t know what he can say to make him believe. He watches the two foxes with careful attention, trying to determine what they could possibly be. Now he’s cursing his single mindedness over the years. If he’d only had the time or the interest to focus on all those other books they’d run into on their travels….

The gold fox gets nudged by the black one and returns the gesture with a soft snap of teeth. Ed can’t help but grin. He knows that feeling all too well. It eyes its black fellow for a moment then whuffs out a breath and butts its snout against the black one’s shoulder before tilting its head. The black one turns to look back at them once, and he swears the thing smiles before it hops over the stream with a flourish of its tail, the gold one following after.

He stares after them confused and feeling like there was a message in that strangeness just for him. What it could be he has no idea. He shakes his head and laughs as he looks back at Mustang. “C’mon, after all that you can’t believe that was normal?”

“Quite the opposite. Smart animals like foxes don’t startle easy and we don’t know how many travelers even pass this way, Edward.” He’s so fucking nonchalant it sets Ed’s teeth on edge. “We may be the first ones those animals have ever seen. Obviously, one was more certain of the situation than the other. Nothing more.”

He scowls at him and pulls up a handful of grass to shred between his fingers. “You’re wrong. I know you are. I just don’t know how.” Mustang just arches an eyebrow at him as he slides the report into the confines of the tent.

“Maybe it’s time we got some sleep. It’s been a tiring day.” Mustang glances at the wood stacked and ready for a fire. “I don’t think we need one quite yet, do you?”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m good.” Honestly, he doesn’t want to deal with Mustang anymore tonight. He forgets how much they can annoy the shit out of each other when they’re together for an extended period of time. He doesn’t think he can sleep anyway. He wants to go see where those foxes went though it’s probably too late now. The ground’s covered in too much debris to see any tracks left behind and they’d easily know he was coming anyway. That doesn’t stop the itch to explore the clearing some more.

Material rustles as Mustang moves around inside the tent. He’s probably unrolling his sleeping bag. Ed really should do the same, but his mind won’t turn off. Ed glances at the tent once then rises to his feet and walks toward the stream to see if there’s something weird about it he missed. He walks it from end to end and finds nothing. Just more rocks, grass, and trees. He then proceeds to explore the rest of the clearing just as thoroughly. He considers doing alchemy, but he has a feeling that wouldn’t go over well.

And maybe they shouldn’t have a fire at all either. Just to be safe. He heads back to the tent and stacks the wood instead of leaving it prepped for a fire then he crawls into the tent. Mustang opens one eye at his entrance then closes it again. Ed thinks that’s fucking creepy, and he’s told him a million times, but the bastard keeps doing it. Something about combat readiness, but it’s still creepy.

He shakes out his own sleeping bag and toes off his shoes before sliding into it. He’s already comfortably warm in the confines of the tent and the bag will only make him even warmer. He just hopes when he wakes up he doesn’t wake up turned into a troll or something. Or worse. He sighs and closes his eyes hoping for sleep to claim him quick and easy.


	2. Chapter 2

Roy wakes and arches his body in a stretch, taking care not to wake Ed. He’s unruly at best in the mornings and downright grouchy at worst. Better to stave off dealing with him as long as he can. He doesn’t want to open his eyes to the day yet so he keeps them closed, taking in the sounds coming from around them. His internal sense of time tells him it’s close to when he normally wakes up, and he can hear the stream trickling its way past them.

They probably could’ve held off on filling their extra canteens until this morning, but there was the possibility they might’ve needed to leave in a hurry. He didn’t really believe it with as isolated as this location is and no outward signs of dangerous animals nearby. He’d been amused last night when Ed had claimed those foxes had been unusual. Their coloring had been unusual, but beyond that they were acting like animals should.

His bladder calls to him and Roy carefully eases out of his sleeping bag and grabs his shoes as he heads outside. He looks around and nothing out of the ordinary greets his eye. He slips into his shoes, grabs the canteen he’d left out of his pack for this reason, then wanders off into one of the groups of trees to take care of business. He’s rinsing off his hands when he feels the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

He hadn’t heard or seen anything. He hurriedly caps the canteen and jogs back to the tent. Everything looks in place, and when he pulls back the flap to look inside, Ed’s still fast asleep. So it wasn’t him that made his senses go on alert. Then what could it’ve been?

Roy stands up again and glances around the clearing. Stream, trees, grass, clear sky. Why does he feel like there’s something wrong? He’d felt some of this unease last night but brushed it off as being uncomfortable without the sideward glances and machinations of the political structure of Amestris’ military.

It’s slow and maybe that’s why he didn’t realize it at first. There’s a seepage of pink mist crawling along the ground. He thinks it’s a trick of the light at first because there’s nothing causing it. The stream remains clear and it doesn’t creep closer to him. It’s only when the surrounding trees begin to disappear amidst the clouding mists does he accept this is actually something that needs to be dealt with. He pitches his voice low but with a command in it. “Edward. Wake up.”

He can hear Ed shuffle around in the shelter of the tent accompanied by low muffled cursing as he deals with his sleeping bag. He’s never been quiet and mornings only make it worse. Roy’s also still uncertain when Ed developed such a conditioned response to his voice, but he won’t question it now. Ed shoves his head outside and glares at him. “What the fuck, Mustang? Why’d you get me up?”

“We seem to have a situation.” Roy gestures helplessly around them and watches as Ed looks around. Ed sucks in a breath then scrambles to his feet to stand beside him while he continues to scan the area.

“I told you! I fucking you told you last night those foxes weren’t right and neither was this place but you didn’t believe me. And now look what’s happened.” He bites his tongue. Now is _not_ the time. He needs Ed to be focused on the problem, not mad at him.

“Yes, we can debate the merits of your instincts later. Any suggestions for right now?”

“Hold on,” Ed says in a distracted air and Roy knows better than to interrupt him. He’s processing all possible scenarios as he takes in everything around him. His right hand’s curled into a fist while his left is tracing what Roy would bet are alchemical symbols into the air at his side. “I…don’t know. The pink mist makes no damn sense.” He makes a frustrated sound. “I don’t know enough about this area to say anything for sure.”

He’d expected as much, but it’s still a blow to hear and makes their situation even more dangerous. They have no idea what to expect or what this even is. They’re effectively blind in a territory neither of them are all that familiar with. “It doesn’t seem to be getting any nearer at least.”

Ed shoots him a look that clearly says he said the stupidest thing ever. “Yeah, but that doesn’t get us anywhere. We’re still stuck right here until it either decides to go away or we die. Not exactly my idea of a good time.”

He ignores the insult in Ed’s tone and focuses on the mist all around them. Well, they have nothing to lose. Except their lives he can’t help but think as he pulls a glove from his pocket and slips it on then raises his right hand and snaps. The mist thickens and swirls heavier around the shapes of trees that can still be dimly seen. He hadn’t thrown much power into that one but he didn’t like the response it received either.

“Do it again” comes from beside him, and he cuts his gaze sideways to Ed. There’s alchemy crackling on Ed’s hands as he kneels beside him, and he doesn’t know what he has prepared. He almost doesn’t want to know.

“I’m not—”

“Just do it.” The curt reply grates on Roy’s nerves and he doesn’t know why. It’s not that it’s insubordination though in some measures it is. It’s the clinical tone and the calculating eyes. He narrows his eyes, but then turns back to the mist. He snaps his fingers again and there’s a larger fount of flame that swirls into the mist. It’s sucked into the swirling mist and their surroundings flare with the reddish color of his flames. The heat on his skin rises exponentially and he’s hurriedly slamming his hands together, cycling through arrays to counteract whatever just happened.

He feels a hand on his ankle and starts as coolness travels over him. Ed. He shouldn’t have worried. He looks down at him and he looks as concerned as Roy feels. This is beyond anything either of them have encountered before. “Any thoughts?”

“What do you think?” Ed meets his gaze with wariness and resignation though Roy can see the gleam of curiosity too. Despite the dire possibilities facing them Ed is ever the scientist.

“That would be a no then.” Roy glances around at the pink mist. It still hasn’t moved any closer, and his flame attacks rebounded on them. He’s unwilling to try more, but Ed doesn’t seem to share his view as the ground rumbles beside him. Roy watches as the ground ripples and funnels its way into the mist.

Nothing.

No parting of the mist, no reaction at all. Ed mutters beside him, “…change the composition.” Before he can ask what he’s planning to do, the temperature around them drops rapidly. Roy’s breath fogs in the air before him. The mist swirls more rapidly and he’s not sure what to expect. He glances at the stream, half expecting it to be frozen solid, but to his surprise it’s still free flowing. The mist hardly seems affected at all either. The only indication there’s been a reaction is the deepening in hue.

Ed claps his hands together again and then there’s a hiss as vapor erupts from the ground to mingle with the mist. It pulses yellow for a moment then settles back into the darker pink. The fissure in the ground seals itself and Ed pushes to his feet with a growl. “Outmaneuvered by fucking mist.” He looks at Roy. “Any smart ideas?”

“Not particularly. We should gather our belongings before we attempt anything further.” Ed returns to the tent without a word and Roy’s left there eying the misty world around them. Surrounded on all sides, but with no obvious intent to harm? Or is he reading too much into the actions of what amounts to condensation and air. He shakes his head and rubs his gloved fingers together. Direct attacks have no effect, but can he extend the area surrounding their tent?

He kneels then looks around before he presses his hands together and then to the ground. A low dirt wall rises at the invisible boundary the mist has left them. He can hear Ed in the background muttering low to himself while zipping and rolling things. Roy takes a breath then pushes the wall further out into the mist while also increasing its height. The mist merely flows over the wall to maintain its border. The further he pushes the wall out the less he can see it through the mist. With a frown he recalls the dirt back to where it’d originally came from.

He turns when Ed moves out from the interior of the tent. “The mist seems rather determined to keep us here.”

“No shit.” He hands out Roy’s pack to him then turns to dismantle the tent. “I’m thinking it’ll let us know when we can do something.” Ed grunts as he pulls one of the poles anchoring the tent out of the ground.

Roy arches an eyebrow as moves to help with the tent. “You’re attributing the mist with a large amount of sentience.” It earns him a glare and a tent pole jabbed into his stomach.

“Just who didn’t believe things were weird last night?” Roy’s mouth tightens, and between the two of them they quickly have the tent folded neatly and its components stowed into their packs.

“You’ll excuse me for being a little more grounded in reality than you, Edward.” That earns him a finger flipping him off and Roy rolls his eyes. Of course Ed would rather prove his point than work with him to come up with a solution. He’s staring at Ed’s back and some days he doesn’t understand how they ever ended up together much less continue to work with each other. He’s about to say something when the mist envelops the area where the tent was but also opens up before them in a narrow path.

Ed’s shoulders tense and he calls back without turning his head. “What sort of reality explains this shit?”

Roy notices absently that Ed’s hands are clenched in fists at his sides. He steps forward to stand beside him and looks at the path. “None that I currently know of.” He pauses. “It looks like we’re being directed.”

“Or summoned.” There’s no mistaking the undisguised distrust underlying those words. It shouldn’t make him smile but it does. It’s been years since that much distrust has been directed his way. Once again, they’re facing conflict on the same side instead of crossways to each other.

They exchange looks before they step forward. The open path before them takes them toward the stream then alongside it to where it disappears into the rock face as far as Roy remembers. They see little else beyond what the mist reveals, barely a foot to each side. Roy glances behind them and sees the mist filling the area they’ve left behind. He casts a look at Ed because he’s far too quiet. He’s either too angry to speak or feels there’s a reason to be quiet.

Roy’s dread grows with each step nearer the rock wall. Only a few steps away and Roy expects the wall to still be there and for them to need to dash themselves against it for daring to tread upon this ground they weren’t welcomed on. As the mist clears from where the stream should end, there is no wall.

“I knew it!”

“And what precisely did you know, Edward?” He doesn’t even bother to turn a scowl on Roy. He steps over the invisible boundary of what should’ve been a mountain wall and onto the newly opened up path before them.

“That following the stream would lead us somewhere more interesting.” Roy watches as he stands there and surveys everything neatly laid out before them. “C’mon, Mustang. Get a move on. The sooner we find out where this ‘mist’ wants to take us the sooner we can figure out what’s going on.”

Roy looks skyward and doesn’t understand how his life took him to this point. He crosses over the invisible boundary he’s built in his mind and expects to feel something. But there’s just the movement of air against his skin as he walks. The mist continues to cosset them for quite a distance longer. When Roy turns back to look at the way they’ve come it’s been completely obscured. “Edward, don’t you happen to wonder how we’ll ever come back the way we came?”

Ed scrambles over a boulder off to the side then looks back at him. “I dunno. There’s probably other ways out of wherever we’re going. We’ll either have to find them or we’ll be shown.” He shrugs then continues to range from side to side of the visible path before them.

Roy snorts. Leave it to Ed to be so trusting when they barely know what exactly they _are_ trusting. Normal vegetation and land features loom into view and disappear. Boulders, large and small, and full grown trees dot the trail they’re guided on. They’re still following alongside the stream and he’s not sure what to make of that. The stream is their guide? Is the stream an essential part of whatever this phenomenon is or just the most convenient route?

He almost envies Ed his blind trust in the situation. But then where would that leave them? Heading into danger with no eye toward self-preservation. Even after all this time Ed rushes in without a single thought. He watches as Ed takes care not to stray into the boundary of the mist and wonders. They’d been too distracted by its appearance to truly test its bounds.

Roy moves toward one side of the mist bounded path and stands just at the edge where visibility blends into mist. He eyes the swirling pink clouds warily. He takes a breath then stretches his hand out. He hears Ed distantly calling his name and demanding to know what he’s doing. He expects to feel something. Sentience transferred along his skin and into his mind, dampness seeping onto his skin, something infinitely more painful. What he feels instead is a solidness that wraps around his hand and resists the force he uses to push forward into the mist.

A faint questioning feeling permeates him and he can clearly tell it's from the mist itself. It doesn’t understand why he’s doing this? It’s followed by a sense of prodding as if to tell him to hurry along the path and get to wherever they’re going. He’s about to send something back when he’s barreled over by a solid weight hitting his side. He lands with a hard thump and can’t breathe for a moment, winded by both impacts.

He blinks and manages to focus on the golden fury sitting on him with its hands planted on the ground beside his head and glaring down at him. “Edward?”

“What the fuck did you think you were doing?! Did you want to lose a hand? I don’t have enough supplies to fix that!” Ed reaches up and curls his hand in his shirt and leans in close until they’re only an inch apart. “Do you know what Hawkeye would do to me if you came back maimed? Or not at all?”

Roy glances down at the hand fisted in his shirt pointedly. It takes a moment, but then Ed slowly releases him and leans back. “It hasn’t harmed us to this point. It was rather doubtful it would’ve done anything.” He pauses because in another place and time he would welcome the position he finds himself in. He’d even flip Ed over and chase the anger off his face with kisses, but that isn’t here or now. “It also seems the mist has a rudimentary sentience. I gathered a few feelings from it.”

The scowl on Ed’s face dissolves into curiosity then intense abstraction as he mulls it over. “You mean like the foxes?”

“Yes, possibly, but I think less than that.” Ed nods above him and shifts back slightly. He finally realizes the position they’re in and just looks at him. He shakes his head then scrambles off him.

“Warn someone when you’re going to get all scientific with weird mists next time,” Ed mutters and holds out a hand to pull him up. Roy debates a moment about taking it, but there’s no need to make this more contentious than it needs to be. He clasps Ed’s hand and allows himself to be pulled to a stand. He brushes himself off and nods at Ed’s “Ready?”

He has no idea what’s in store for them, but they have no choice but to find out.


	3. Chapter 3

Stupid Mustang. He should’ve warned him he was gonna do that. Instead Ed had to see him sticking his arm into the stupid mist. Yelling at Mustang to "stop it right the fuck now" hadn’t done much good either. Ed wasn't even acknowledged until he tackled his stupid bastard to the ground. His heart’s still pounding from the whole thing. He glowers at the path in front of them as he walks beside Mustang in stony silence. He’d dropped his pack to get to Mustang faster so he breaks away to pick it up. He tugs the straps over his shoulders then starts to explore the narrow corridor of visibility for himself.

He kicks at the rocks littering the ground and shoves his hands into his pockets. Stupid Mustang. The idiot shouldn’t even be on this mission with him. He’s too valuable a part of the political shenanigans back in Central. If anything happened to him out here, all they’d been planning for years would go to hell. Ed didn’t want him along on this mission for that reason, but the bastard had insisted. He’d claimed it’d be a nice vacation. The bastard doesn’t take vacations. Ed has a sneaking suspicion Mustang just wanted some time alone with him and this relatively small mission had been the perfect excuse. And of course, it’d backfired on them both. Ed shakes his head. With Mustang along that relatively small risk wasn’t so small anymore and there’s no plausible deniability if Mustang gets his ass captured. So they better not get captured.

Ed clambers over a large boulder and looks back in the direction they came from. He can’t see anything but mist, and ahead of them is the exact same view. He glances down and finds Mustang still in the dead center of the mist path and paying him absolutely no attention. If anything he looks too damn alert, taking in everything around him with caution.

Wasn’t he just the one that said the mist hadn’t hurt them yet and so wouldn’t have harmed him while he stuck his hand into it? Ed rolls his eyes and climbs down from the boulder then drifts back toward the center of the path. He’s not sure how far they’ve walked. A couple hours maybe since the sun looks like it’s a little lower in the sky, but it’s hard to tell when they can’t see where they’ve come from. For all they know, they could be walking in circles though that’s probably unlikely with the stream continuing on beside them.

Ed decides to try his own luck with the mist. He can’t let Mustang have all the fun. He walks toward one of the borders then leans into the mist. It gently forces him back. He walks and runs into it with the same result: a soft firmness gently pushing him back. He also gets the sense that the mist is amused at his actions. It might even be playing with him.

“Edward.”

He looks toward Mustang who’s stopped in the middle of the path. “What?” Ed says even as he heads back toward him. “What’s going on?”

Mustang simply nods toward what’s in front of them. Ed stops beside him and looks forward where he doesn’t see anything at first. But then, there, catching a gleam of sunlight drifting in the heights of the mist there’s a city visible. Is this where they’re supposed to be going? If so, how are they getting up there?

Ed stares harder. The buildings look nothing like anything he’s ever seen in Amestris or even in the ruins of Xerxes. Towers sweep into the skies, and they aren’t just part of one building like they are in Central. They’re a part of many buildings and their shapes and sizes vary from those only small enough to hold a handful of windows to those that have windows curving from one side to the other. The tops are different too from pointed cones to flat ones with crenellations like the top of a chess piece. The color of the stones range from light tan to the darkest black and every shade and color in between. It’s an astonishing sight with every drift of mist or cloud revealing something else different to look at.

He whistles low and looks at Mustang. “You ever see anything like that?” Ed watches him tug at the cuff of his gloves before Mustang looks at him.

“Not particularly. Possibly in books when I was young but not in any of my travels over the years.” Mustang straightens his shoulders and brushes nonexistent dirt off his shirt. “Edward, we need to be careful. We don’t know what we’re walking into or what they’ll require of us.”

“I know that.” Ed crosses his arms and drums his fingers. “I told you coming along was a bad idea.” He shakes his head then takes a step as he looks at the city again.

“Maybe we should settle on a scenario for why we were exploring this particular mountainside?” Ed cuts his eyes sideways to Mustang who looks back at him with a calm expression. “Just to be safe. You never know. How many times have we both encountered…difficulties when neither of us wanted?”

Too many times to count. What is it Mustang’s always spouting? Always be prepared because plans never survive first contact. Something like that. Ed’s eyes catch on the city again. He nods and moves so he’s facing Mustang sideways. “Yeah, can’t we just say we were hiking the mountainside?”

“A little simple but a possibility.” This was never his strong suit. He can practically hear the gears going in Mustang’s head and he’ll leave him to it. Ed would usually cobble some shitty story together and force people to believe it. Or if they didn’t, he’d go right on doing whatever he wanted until he found his answers. It usually ended up with him getting yelled at when he finally reported back to Mustang but whatever. “A better one would be that we were exploring the region to catalog the unusual landmarks and destinations in the area for other travelers.”

“Wouldn’t that make them wary of us?” Ed looks at the mist and lightly swats it as a tendril of it crept closer while he and Mustang were talking. “What if they already know everything about us? They did send the mist or whatever it really is to escort us to wherever.”

“Having something to tell them is significantly better than nothing. We also haven’t done anything excessively threatening since we awoke to a mist filled morning.”

Ed arches an eyebrow at him because has he forgotten their various alchemical attempts to get rid of the mist? He looks at the mist and hopes they didn’t hurt it when they did all that. He pats the mist tendril and tries to transmit a feeling of sorrow for any pain they caused earlier. He gets back a sense of acknowledgment and denial.

“Yeah, okay, but I bet they already know something. Let’s keep going. I want to meet these people.” Mustang looks at him with faint disapproval, but whatever. He just wants to deal with something different. He starts walking and the way his foot settles with a harder impact than he’s felt most of the day tells him something’s different. He glances down and sees broad yellow cobblestones beneath his feet. They aren’t square and regularly shaped like they would be in an Amestrian city. They’re irregular in size and shape as if the builders didn’t want to disturb the natural configuration of the rocks. Mustang murmurs a faint comment of “intriguing.”

“The mist’s clearing out some too.” They can see farther in every direction, and when he turns to look behind them they can begin to see some of the distance they’ve traveled, not all of it but much more than they were allowed before. “You don’t think this is alchemy, do you?”

“If it is, it’s a kind neither of us have encountered before.” Ed’s eyes widen and he grabs Mustang’s arm.

“Do you think this is what the research was talking about? They found some offshoots of whatever this place holds and used it as amplifiers?” He can’t help the excitement in his voice. What if this is what they really needed to find? If they hadn’t been left high and dry by their contact down below they never would’ve found this place. Maybe it was a good thing that idiot flaked out on them. Thoughts race through Ed’s mind as he tries to use every scrap of information about amplifiers and their creators to form a coherent theory.

Mustang squeezes his shoulder, which makes Ed focus back on him. “That’s an outside possibility at best. I think we should head into this without any preconceived notions and simply explore what’s presented to us. Don’t you?”

Ed searches his face and sees mild worry and determination. Unknown location with unknown forces, but between the two of them they should be able to handle it. They’re the Flame and Fullmetal Alchemists. They took down Bradley. This should be simple. He nudges Mustang and smiles. “C’mon, stop looking so worried. We’ll be fine. This is us. We’ve gotten out of worse shit over the years.”

He looks at Ed for a long moment then there’s a slight smile curving his lips. “Yes, that we have, Edward. Sometimes I forget.” Ed reaches up and squeezes Mustang’s hand with his own.

“Let’s get moving then. Sooner we meet them the sooner you can charm them, bastard.” He hears a soft chuckle from behind him, but he ignores it. He rolls his shoulders to ease some of the weight on them from his pack. It’s been a couple years now that he’s had two flesh arms and as much as he’s built up the strength in the right one, sometimes he misses the automail.

As they walk, Ed notices stone posts lining both sides of the stone path. They probably mark some sort of set distance they’ve traveled. He idly starts counting each one they pass. It’s something to do because neither of them feel like talking. There’s too much riding on what happens when they get into the city. That’s the likely place they’re headed anyway. Ed rocks back on his heels when the mist suddenly stretches across the path and wraps itself around him.

“Edward!” He twists to find Mustang wrapped up in the mist too with a perplexed look on his face. There’s no way out of this for either of them. Was it all some elaborate trap to bring them to their deaths? Al’s going to kill him. Hawkeye too for that matter since the stupid bastard insisted on accompanying him even when Ed had argued against it.

The mist curls around his hand and he gets a strong sense of happiness and sadness at the same time. He strokes the mist like a pet and practically gets a purr of pleased emotion in response. It envelops him in something like a hug then it withdraws until it completely disappears. Ed looks around almost hoping it’s still there somewhere. For some odd reason he thinks he’s going to miss it. He shakes his head at himself then looks around. “Mustang, you ok?”

“Yeah….” Mustang runs a hand through his hair then looks to the sides of the path. “That was…unsettling.”

Ed shrugs. “The mist grew fond of us or something, but it had to go away. Thought that was pretty obvious.” He ignores the glare Mustang sends his way. “Guess we better just keep going then?”

“Or maybe we should turn back.”

He looks at him disbelievingly. “The Great Flame Alchemist and General Bastard is afraid of a little adventure? And who says they’d even let us go back with how we were herded here in the first place?”

Mustang sighs and gets that look on his face like he’s getting a headache. Yeah, well tough shit. They’re already this far into this adventure. They might as well go all the way. “Sometimes caution is the greater aspect of valor.”

“And sometimes that’s just another word for being chickenshit.” Mustang glares, but before they can get any further into the argument there’s a sharp yip from in front of them. They both turn to look and Ed laughs at the sight of the black fox standing in the middle of the path. “Look, it’s the bastard fox come to guide us on our way.”

“That fox is not a representation of me, Fullmetal.” Ed rolls his eyes at the petulance in Mustang’s voice.

“Whatever. Let’s get moving like we’re obviously being told to.” Like before the fox’s ears flicker between the two of them and Ed gets the distinct feeling it understands what they’re saying. Or maybe he’s just going crazy.

The fox lets them come pretty close before it darts ahead of them, clearly their guide for this part of the adventure. He glances around at the surrounding underbrush and wonders if the fox’s companion from before is lurking nearby. He thinks he hears a few leaves rustling here and there, but he’s not completely sure.

“Very peculiar,” Mustang says beside him as he studies the fox with as much intent as their surroundings. Maybe he’ll figure out how the mist and foxes came into being ‘cause Ed has no clue and the more they can figure out before they meet whoever they’re being taken to meet the better.

The wooded areas slowly give way to stone fences and modest houses on either side of the path and Ed figures they’ve finally reached the city. “Hey, where’s your companion from earlier?” The black fox pauses and tilts its head, showing a hint of teeth, and as the last vestiges of woods give way to nothing but buildings the golden fox jumps out from the side. It comes to stand beside the black one on the steps rising before them. Ed grins.

“It only follows from your comparison earlier that that golden fox stands for you,” Mustang says mildly and Ed turns to give him a look. “…But of course you’d already made that assumption.”

“Sometimes you can be really slow, Mustang.”

“Shut up, Edward, and follow the foxes.” Of all the things he never expected to hear come out of Mustang’s mouth. Ed manages to hold in the laugh, but he can’t stop the wide grin from breaking across his face.

Their path alternates between stairs and flat thruways as they move through the city. He’d thought those initial buildings were houses but now he wonders if they were guard posts? But why would they need them when they’re so well protected by whatever they did to hide this trail?

Some buildings are obviously houses with the distance they’re set back from the streets and the random scattering of objects in front of them. They're probably kids toys, but they’re not like toys he’s ever seen though with the exception of something that looks like a doll with a head, arms, and legs. Flowers bloom in the front yards too while curtains shade the windows. Other buildings seem to be stores judging from the curved and pointed script adoring the windows and the doors. How does anyone know when they’re open or closed? Is it something everyone just knows? Or is there a part of the script that says it that and he just can’t read?

Mustang’s been far too quiet and Ed glances to the side to make sure he hasn’t disappeared, but he’s right beside him, eyes alert and scanning both sides of the path. “Would you relax? We’re obviously not going to be attacked.”

“Forgive me if I don’t trust appearances for what they are.”

“You’ve been playing politics too long.”

“You’re the one that fought my coming along.”

“For exactly this reason! You could’ve had a vacation some other way.” Mustang doesn’t answer him because he won’t admit that this was partly his fault. Ed eyes the foxes ahead of them and wonders how they fit into the scheme of things here. They’re obviously not just animals like that mist wasn’t just mist. What gives them that extra bit of intelligence? Is it this place or were they altered to fit whatever their creators needed them for? He frowns and eyes the script winding across doors and houses a little more warily.

“You get the feeling we’re being taken on a tour?” Ed shoves his hands in his pockets and tries to find something to break up the quietness surrounding them. It’s weird. No city he’s ever been in has been this quiet. You could always hear something, a machine or a person.

“It’s a possibility, but it’s rather pointless since any significance would be lost on us.” The tension lessens somewhat in Mustang’s shoulders for no reason Ed can see. “Possibly this route is the least alarming for the citizens of the city?”

“Yeah, maybe.” But it still feels like they’ve been walking forever and after how far they’ve walked today, Ed would just like this to be over. How big is this city? He has no idea since the glimpses they’d seen of it between the clouds hadn’t told them much. Actually being in it isn’t helping much either.

Their travel through the city is evidently over because the foxes bound up a set of wide stairs. Ed exchanges a look with Mustang before they start after them. Onward and upward and it’s a good thing they’re both used to those million flights of stairs to the Fuhrer’s compound or this would be miserable.

“I never thought I’d be grateful for that ostentatious entrance to the Fuhrer’s compound….”

“I guess we’ll have to thank Hawkeye when we get back for making that part of our workouts.” Mustang nods and Ed notices that neither of them are out of breath as the climb continues.

When they’ve finally run out of stairs, the foxes look back to make sure they’ve made it and then bark in unison at the ornate arched doorway before them. The black one looks at them once more and Ed swears it winks before it starts to walk away. The gold one pauses and looks back too but tilts its head as if questioning them about something. It bobs its head once then follows after the black one. There’s a small area of brush to the side of the doorway they disappear into. Ed wonders if there isn’t some pathway for foxes into the interior of the building or at least a home for them.

Ed turns around to look at where they’ve come from and whistles low at the city spread out below them. It’s much like the view from the top of the Fuhrer’s compound with buildings and streets as far as the eye can see but utterly foreign at the same time. The buildings are hewn from stone and display every type of color, nothing like the uniform nature of Central. Like they saw earlier through the clouds, their tops range from flat to coned and towered. It’s a sight to see and expresses the uniqueness of the city with little doubt.

“Magnificent, don’t you think?” Ed looks at Mustang and he’s smiling at the view. It is pretty damn impressive.

“Yeah, it’s a lot more colorful than Central.”

“I think that’s what gives it its splendor. People are unafraid of doing what they like. Self-expression at its finest.” Mustang lays a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. “One day I’d like Central, and all of Amestris, to teem with the same freedom.”

Ed arches an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t trust this place?” Mustang looks at him and smiles.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it for what it is.”

“A glimpse of something better?”

“Perhaps.” He shrugs and pats Ed’s shoulder. “Whatever else we learn will temper this initial moment, but that doesn’t mean this sight still can’t inspire.”

Ed looks out over the city again and he has to agree. In all his travels, when he came upon a place, the first impressions always stayed with him no matter what else happened. Sometimes the ones he left bloodied and in disarray were the ones he remembered most fondly.

There’s a creak behind them and they turn to look at the ornate door. It’s covered in the script they saw earlier on the streets below and he can’t read it exactly, but somehow it looks familiar. Like a distant relative of the language he knows. He can’t pick out any seams in the door’s woodwork or the stone archway. They look as if they naturally fit together. Etched or carved into the stones are various animals. Ed can clearly see foxes, wolves, hawks, fish, and others shown in their natural habitats. The door continues to gape wider, but Ed can’t see anything moving it.

He and Mustang exchange uneasy glances before they step toward the threshold. There’s no telling what’s on the other side of the door or even what kind of reception they’re going to get. He’s leaning toward a nice one initially, but he’s been wrong before. He hopes he’s not wrong this time. Either way it’s about time they find out what this is all about.


	4. Chapter 4

Roy isn’t sure what he was expecting on the other side, but it was nothing like what they’re greeted with. The foyer is warmly lit with a hall table to the left and intricate paintings like those carved on the archway hang on the walls. Nothing about this place screams of a threat. The floor under their feet is covered with plush carpet and gives every indication that this was a home first and foremost.

The doorways he can glimpse opening further down the hallway exude as much welcome as the foyer. Some of them are as warmly lit as where they’re standing while others are dark. Roy isn’t certain of the proper etiquette for traipsing about in someone’s home from a previously unknown civilization. “Edward, maybe we should stay here until we’re called for.”

Ed snorts, which causes Roy to look at him. “And what if they don’t know we’re here? If we wandered around we could gain some information. We could figure out what they might need us for or something else about them they wouldn’t want us to know.”

“And what if we do something to offend them? And get ourselves sentenced to death without a second thought?” They’ve barely been here two seconds and Ed already wants to go haring off on into danger like always. “Wandering off right now would be too dangerous.”

“Have you been sitting behind that desk in Eastern Command so long you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be in the field?”

“I’ve done no such thing,” he hisses back. He’s run plenty of operations from behind a desk. Ed’s even been there for many of the more recent ones. He should know exactly how complicated and dangerous they are. He is not the pencil pusher and womanizer he appears to most people.

Ed steps closer and pokes a finger against his chest. “Then why the fuck are we still standing out here in the open when we should be looking for cover or intel?”

Roy blinks. Ed has a point there. Maybe he is a little rusty, but the better question is when did _Ed_ learn a modicum of military training? As far as he remembers, anything that smacked of tactical maneuvers had been brushed off with Ed’s usual disdain. “When we have a moment to ourselves, you and I are going to have a long discussion.”

The rolled eyes are familiar, and as he’s about to haul Ed off down the hall into one of those darkened rooms, a figure approaches from one of the lit ones. They’re dressed in long flowing robes, almost like those of Ishval, but the designs tracing over the cloth are different. The robe is also more tightly cut, flattering the figure instead of causing the wearer to disappear into the folds. As the figure comes closer, Roy can see he’s male with his hair framing his face. “Ah, welcome. You must be our newly arrived guests.” He clasps his hands together and bows.

Roy looks at Ed and receives a shrug in return before they both look forward again and copy the man’s gesture and bow. At least he can trust Ed to be polite when the situation calls for it. “Yes, we’re happy to be here, but you’ll have to excuse us if we don’t know exactly where here is.”

“Oh there is much to discuss between us. There is also much you must tell us about the land outside the City of Hohenheim.”

Ed tenses beside him. He’s never heard much about Ed’s father from Ed directly and the status of their relationship after the Promised Day had never been made clear to him. The anger coming off Ed is palpable though and he only hopes Ed can hold his rage in check. “Is that what this place is called?”

The man nods at Ed. “Yes, indeed. Without the Great Hohenheim, we would not be what we are today. But first, you must be tired and hungry. Let us have a feast first before we talk about serious matters.”

Their new host turns and heads down the hallway with the obvious expectation that they follow. After a moment of hesitation, they follow. It wasn’t the welcome either of them had been expecting. “Oh, forgive me but you may call me Jonathan.” He turns back to them with a smile. “You’ll meet many more of us before the day’s through.”

He leads them past the doorway he’d appeared from and further down the hall. From the outside and the time they’d been standing in the entryway, there had been no sense of scale, but as they continue further and further along the hall, Roy has the sense this place is immense. It might possibly be a central meeting place. What else would explain the immensity?

Jonathan pauses beside one of the warmly lit doorways. “If you’ll hand me your packs?” There’s no getting around it and he and Ed shrug out of them and pass them over. There’s nothing that would endanger them if Jonathan decides to riffle through them, but Roy doesn’t think they’ll have to worry about that. Jonathan smiles then gestures them through the doorway. “Our leaders are very excited to converse with you. It’s been many years since we’ve had visitors like you.”

Roy gives a slight smile in return. All his instincts are telling him to run the other way. He’s walking into this blind and while he’s certain he and Ed can handle themselves if it turned into a fight, he’d rather not risk that right now. But it’s not like either of them can refuse without the appearance of being rude. “Thank you,” he murmurs after a moment and steps past Jonathan into the interior of the room, Ed only a step behind him.

Arrayed before them at a large round table are a number of women and a few men. Is this society mostly female compared to the one they came from? He hesitates then presses his hands together like Jonathan did earlier and bows. “It is an honor to be here, esteemed leaders.”

There’s a soft rustle of voices around the table and then one voice rises above the others. “You are welcome too, visitor. Please join us for our meal. We shall begin the process of acquainting ourselves with each other after.” Roy straightens and he’s greeted with a warm smile from the woman who had spoken. She looks comfortably aged, older than him, but not quite as old as Madame Christmas. Power must come early in this society or maybe it’s an inherited position.

Two chairs are brought forth from the side of the room by two of the people that had been sitting. They’re placed at the nearest side to them and directly across from the woman who had spoken. Roy glances at Ed and he seems to have a decent hold on his anger. The only signs of it are the tightness in his shoulders and the slightly strained way he moves. Better than he’d hoped for.

They seat themselves and surprisingly there are two place settings exactly where the chairs were placed. They were expected but obviously weren’t meant to see that initially. Their arrival could hardly have been mistaken for being unknown. Food gets passed around the table in large containers where people help themselves to as much as they like. Compared to Ed’s plate, his own is rather sparse and he doesn’t think either of them miss the amused looks that pass between some of the others at the table as Ed starts to eat.

The conversation flows around them concerning topics that on the surface seem familiar like water levels and food production, but soon turn into something incomprehensible with unfamiliar terms discussed. He and Ed don’t say much as they eat. On his part, he’s carefully observing everything occurring around them. Ed’s probably too busy feasting his starving stomach. He’s had it explained to him a time or two how the transmutation linked Ed and Al’s bodies, but that doesn’t explain how Ed still has the same enormous appetite now that Al’s back in his own body.

He’s pretty certain they were allowed to eat without interruption if the curious and concerned gazes directed discreetly their way are any indication. Just how much had the mist had transmitted back to these people? Hopefully, about as much as when they interacted with it directly. Roy sips at the water glass he’d been provided and tries to identity the role of each person at the table.

The woman who spoke to them is obviously the leader. Her hair’s tied back in a bun and she peers down her nose while speaking to others like she’s normally accustomed to perched glasses. Does this society have glasses? He hasn’t seen any indication, but they have windows so it wouldn’t be too far of a leap to have them. Her robes are highlighted in light blue with green panels. To the right sits a young woman that shares the same kind eyes and mouth and is obviously either a daughter or other close relation. Her robes are trimmed in red with dark purple panels. They must represent some sort of status as everyone else arrayed around the table has similar designs of varying colors on their robes.

Everyone at the table ranges in age from the moderately young to the middle age. The few men at the table lean more toward the middle of that range than either end. They are the ones more intent on observing him and Ed than carrying on conversation. They interject here and there when required, but other than that keep looking in his and Ed’s direction. The scrutiny isn’t anything new, if anything, it only straightens his spine and his resolve to appear as nothing more than puzzled travelers brought here by the mist.

The mens’ robes are a darker shade of tan and make the light colored thread stand out more. Instead of the flowing, intricate design of the women’s robes, theirs are bold to accent the same straightforward cut of their robes. An indication of fashion or more likely larger hands making small stitches hard to do?

Several glances from both males and females toward Ed bleed awe and fascination. A worrying combination that could work in their favor. What could their interest in Ed be? They know little about either of them aside from whatever observations had urged them to send the mist.

The attention of everyone seated around the table focuses on them as Ed wipes his mouth and appears done with his dinner. He sits more upright and tilts his head slightly at Mustang. He gives a subtle shrug of his shoulders in response. They can’t just simply walk out. They probably want to ask them simple questions, but it could get difficult if what they’re asked isn’t something either of them are willing to answer.

“Now that you’ve finished your meal, we would like to introduce ourselves and why you’ve been brought to our city.” The same woman that had spoken earlier speaks again. “I am Edith and to my side sits my daughter, Margaret.” She nods at them and gives a slight smile. “We oversee the city with gracious help from our fellow guild leaders.”

Next a man with dark brown hair and light grey eyes bows his head. “I am Elijah. Dominick,” he indicates a fair haired man with blue eyes and wide green panels shot through with waves of blue, “and I oversee dealings with creations like the mist you dealt with.”

Roy arches an eyebrow. There are more fantastical things like the mist created in this city? He and Ed will need to earn themselves allowances to explore that aspect of life here more thoroughly. It would be an invaluable asset to have in Amestris.

Next to Elijah sits a woman with dark hair curling to her shoulders who smiles before she says, “And I’m Marissa, head of protection measures. It’s been a long time since we’ve had visitors.”

A man younger than Elijah and Dominick with piercing green eyes nods. He places a hand against his chest. “Adam and I, Michael, oversee the maintenance of the city’s structures. There is much we should discuss later.”

There are several other speakers with important functions, but the names and faces begin to blur. Normally, he’s better at this, but it’s been a tiring day. A new culture, hidden away in the depths of the mountains, protected by mysterious means that may or may not be alchemical, and tied to Ed’s father. There haven’t been any overt threats yet, but that doesn’t mean one won’t appear the longer they remain in this city. Roy nods politely at each speaker and tries to cement a recollection of their faces and titles. More time individually with each would help.

Once the introductions are over, Roy inclines his head and looks at each of them. “I am Roy Mustang. We were rather surprised by the revelation of your city, but I, for one, am pleased to sit among you now.”

He hears Ed snort softly beside him and hopes no one else heard. They don’t have the time for Ed to be his surly self despite what this city might stir in him. He pushes his plate forward and rests a fist on the table edge. “I’m Edward Elric and I have to learn more about that mist and those foxes.”

Smiles and soft chuckles spread around the table. He didn’t insult them right off the bat. Roy will take that as a win, and if Ed gets the information he wants, Roy’ll count it as a bonus. He turns his attention to Edith as she clears her throat.

“Now that we’ve made ourselves known, we should tell you why we’ve brought you here,” Edith says. She folds her hands on the table and directs her gaze at Ed. “You we recognized as the son of our long ago founder, Hohenheim. There was no mistaking you as you look remarkably like him.”

Roy watches Ed peripherally who doesn’t scowl like Roy’s certain he wants to. His jaw tightens and the hand not already on the table fists in his lap.

“And you, Roy Mustang, we didn’t think it wise to separate the two of you as you exhibited the same ability we are dearly in need of right now.”

They’d been observed since that moment on the trail? Just how advanced were these people’s alchemical abilities? Roy’s torn between fascination and alarm. They could benefit from an exchange of information but at what cost?

“Wait, what? How’d you even know about that? We weren’t even in the clearing then. We were still on that treacherous trail.” Ed’s shifted to the edge of his seat and has directed that bright focused attention on Edith. Roy doesn’t envy her.

“Well, you should know that Hohenheim built that trail and inlaid some unique protections for our use. Fortunately, they’ve required minimal maintenance over the long period since Hohenheim’s last visit.”

“When was that last visit?” Ed says with a snap and Roy hopes fervently for an answer of hundreds if not thousands of years.

A low murmur of voices fill the room as the arrayed leaders look at each other and speak. Edith looks at her daughter for a moment then back to Ed. What do they make of Ed and his obvious anger toward their storied founder? Do they excuse it or is it an insult? The situation’s already complicated enough. “It’s been many lifetimes since we last saw the great Hohenheim. At least several dozen leaders before me have passed between his last visit and now. Why do you ask?”

Ed looks mulish and for several long seconds he doesn’t think Ed will answer. He has no idea the consequences that would bring upon them when Hohenheim is held in such esteem. They’ve extended that to Ed and him, but how far will that go? Ed takes a breath and looks at a point in the middle of the table, meeting no one’s eyes. “He was gone for most of my life. I wondered if he’d come here while he was gone.”

Ed hadn’t mentioned his brother at all. Why wouldn’t he? Normally, he couldn’t stop going on about everything Al was doing and why he was doing it. Had they mentioned Al while they were climbing? Maybe not. The less these people knew about them the better.

A sad look rests on Edith’s face now and Ed can’t be taking that well though he’s holding his tongue. “I’m sorry to hear of that, Edward. No one should ever be separated from their family for so long. Here in the city, we value the time spent with family to the utmost. As such a unique community, we try and cherish every life.”

Those around the table nod in agreement and Roy gets an uneasy feeling. It feels too eerily like Bradley’s table of generals who’d supported him unquestioningly. What about those that seek to leave the city? How are they treated? “Of course. It’s only natural. This city is a stunning ecosystem unto itself.”

Ed shifts to look at him quizzically at the edge of his vision but it’s Edith he’s focused on. She smiles brightly in return and nods. “Yes, yes, it provides everything we could ever need. We live in peace and prosperity while still being able to observe the outside world to an extent.”

Margaret rests a hand on her mother’s arm then interjects, “We’re also developing a policy that would allow more of us to explore the outside world.”

Edith squeezes her daughter’s hand, but there’s a downturn to her lips. She doesn’t approve. Interesting. Maybe they can use that to their advantage. He glances at Ed and he’s clearly more interested than he was before. He never could resist a puzzle, and Roy has to admit he’s curious himself. But first, they need to be sure they can extract themselves from the city with little issue. 

Edith picks up where she’d left off. “Yes, many of our young ones have become curious about the outside in the past few generations, more than they should be. The clamor has grown and we’re attempting to address it.” She clears her throat and Margaret slides back in her chair almost a little sullenly. A topic of contention between the two and a quick survey of the table shows divided opinions too. It's a delicate and dangerous situation indeed.

“You said you required our help to repair Hohenheim’s protections?” Roy says mildly. He has a feeling he knows why the protections are failing now after hundreds of years of no issues. Was their presence here all that voluntary? The mist wouldn’t have let them go back the way they’d come, and Edith seems to have already decided they’d be on her side in this matter.

“Yes, that brings us back to the more pressing matter. Over the history of our city, those protections have withstood a great many forces, from earthquakes to droughts to internal and external strife, with only minor fluctuations in their strength. They’ve always been reliable. We’ve had little issue with using them in the past, but over the last two leaders and into my time as leader, the fluctuations have grown.”

Those seated around the table shift uneasy. Some look away, others play with their robe sleeves or the cutlery before them. An uncomfortable topic and obviously why he and Ed are meeting with the guild leaders. It wouldn’t do to alarm the public unnecessarily.

“No longer as minor as they were, they have flickered wildly in stability. Our protections have failed us without warning and sometimes to disastrous effect.” A dark shadow crosses her face but she shakes her head as if chasing a horrible image off. “We have endured and tried to bring Hohenheim the Great back to his city to no avail. We’ve even sent several parties out into the world looking for him but none succeeded or have ever returned.”

Ed’s drumming his fingers along the edge of the table and Roy knows that look. His mind’s spinning a thousand different directions while he pulls all those disparate thoughts into a cohesive argument. “Just to be clear, he never taught me anything about your protections. I never even knew this city existed until today. The fixing of your protections will not happen quickly. We’ll need to fully understand them before we can figure out what’s making them fluctuate.”

An elegant ploy for full informational access if Roy ever saw one. He has to give Ed credit. He really has grown up in the aftermath of the Promised Day. Roy takes a sip from his water glass to hide his slight frown. Hopefully, Ed’s request will be granted though even if it is granted, there is much more to this than they could ever learn in only a few days. The guild leaders look nothing but accepting, though a few hold something more in their gazes. Roy’s uneasy at being uncertain of what that might be. Margaret is among them and that may not bode well for him and Ed.

Edith tilts her head and directs a look toward Marissa who nods in return then another look directed toward a lightly tanned young woman whose name Roy doesn’t remember. Another look to a young man that’s darker than the young woman. Edith receives nods in return from both and smiles. “It’s settled then. You shall have access to all the information and resources you require to understand our problem and aid us to the best of your ability.”


	5. Chapter 5

The _single_ room they’re led to is well put together and furnished without seeming over the top. It’s fitting for respected guests, but it’s even further into the compound than the dining room. It makes Roy uneasy. They have no opportunity to slip outside undetected and venture into the city on their own. Too many doors and too many twists and turns prevented easy navigation to the outside. It feels rather deliberate.

They thanked their guide then both of them waited until he was gone before they ventured further into the room. Ed smirks at Roy and saunters over to the bed to sprawl across it. “Pretty fancy place they have here.”

“They’ve figured out what we are to each other.” Ed gives him a “well duh” look, but Roy ignores it as he moves around the periphery of the room. Tasteful wall hangings depict historical events while books line the shelves, most probably filled with the history of the city. Yes, this room has been specifically set aside for outsiders. There’s not a hint of dust despite the lack of use the room receives. Sculpture and art pieces that reflect certain scenes from the wall hangings also line the shelves around the room.

“How long do you think they were watching us? Think they’re still watching us here?”

“They knew about my abilities so a safe estimate would probably be as soon as we stepped onto the wooden trail.” Roy continues to move around the room, eying the sculptures and wall hangings, and occasionally examining a few more closely. After he sets down what looks like a lion, he looks back at Ed. “I wouldn’t see the reason for it. We couldn’t do much that they wouldn’t be able to counteract almost immediately.”

Ed’s gaze roves the room and the lazy way he’s spread out on the bed doesn’t fool Roy. “So opposing schools of thought.”

Roy nods. “An unwise choice by Margaret to bring that to light in front of foreigners.”

“Not particularly, but at least we know. She didn’t seem to want to hide it. Thinking the opposing sides might be involved in their issues with the protections or whatever they are?”

“It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Shall you cozy up to Margaret and I’ll glean as much from Edith as I can?” Ed makes a sound of agreement and Roy notices their packs have been neatly set against one of the walls. There’s a door to the back of the large room that probably leads to a bathroom and Roy’s now curious about the inner workings of this city. 

“Go clean up before you start breaking down how this city works from its foundations up.” Roy arches an eyebrow at him and gets a hand waved in his direction. “You’re like me. Can’t resist figuring out how things work, but we’ve got bigger problems to deal with. Now, move your ass into the bathroom before I make you.”

“If you forget, Edward, you’re not my commanding officer.”

“Haven’t forgotten at all, bastard,” Ed says far too cheerfully. “You’re really gonna make me get off this bed to drag you into the bathroom?” At Roy’s bland look, Ed scowls and sits up to swing his feet over the bed’s edge.

He’s not particularly looking forward to automail shoved in unpleasant places so he moves to grab his pack from the wall and heads into the bathroom. He doesn’t look back at Ed because there’s going to be a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

The bathroom is as opulent as the surrounding room. Sand colored tiles give a warm glow to reflected light while dust red ones provide a contrast. In some ways he’s disappointed at not seeing a greater difference between Amestris and this long hidden city. Much is the same between this place and the outside world. He’s curious to know more about its founding.

Roy draws the cloth curtain back from the shower cubicle to turn on the water and watches it cascade into the sparkling white tub. The shower head’s simple and unadorned, and the knobs for temperature control are simple too but graced with a dragon on the hot water side and a whale on the other. Curious. How disparate had the initial populations been for a water creature to be featured in a landlocked city?

Roy strips out of his clothes and eyes the dust that arises from them with surprise. They have traveled quite a distance. The distractions of a new civilization, sentient mists, and odd colored foxes made him forget. Will they be offered robes in the native style when they’re shown the internal workings of whatever’s failing? He suspects the council would prefer to keep their actual presence a secret from as many people as possible.

It might be a lost cause with the daughter, Margaret, more than likely telling her fellow movement members about the meeting they just had. Roy tests the water with his fingers and once it’s hot enough he showers quickly. He dresses in a relatively clean set of clothes then emerges into the main room to find Ed nearly asleep on the bed. He’d half expected to come out and find him scribbling madly on the pages of the report file about this city they’ve found and possible alchemical theories for how the mist worked.

He sets his pack against the wall again then moves over to the bed to gently shake Ed awake. He gets a low grumble and Ed curling in on himself in response. Roy smiles slightly and shakes him again. “Edward, wake up. You wouldn’t want to sleep in those dusty clothes, now would you?”

That earns him another low grumble. “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Gold eyes open to look at him. “You leave me any hot water?”

“I think you’ll be fine.” Roy trails his fingers over Ed’s cheek then moves back. “Now go before you make the bed any dirtier than you already have.” He gets a tongue stuck out at him, but Ed rolls out of bed and stretches before making his way to the bathroom.

~*~*~*~

For once the bastard isn’t up at some obscene hour of the morning if the spread of warmth against his back is anything to go by. Ed nudges him with the toes of his automail leg and Mustang tries to move away, but Ed’s persistent. “What time is it?”

Roy swats at him and Ed’s tempted to push him out of the bed completely. He’s too comfortable, nearly buried, under the covers to want to emerge from their warmth. “Actually, did we even see how they kept time?”

No response from Roy. Typical. Ed shoves at him with his automail toes again then pulls the covers off and rolls out of bed. They’re no windows for him to look at ‘cause, oh yeah, they’re in the middle of the compound thing. He rolls his shoulders then pulls his hair back into a loose ponytail. He doesn’t remember seeing any clocks or anything at any point last night either. There’s no way they don’t have something though.

A knock at the door has Ed padding over to pull it open slowly. It’s the same guy that showed them to the dining room last night and in his hands are a set of folded robes like everyone else was wearing last night. “These are for you to wear today, Mr. Elric. Our day begins at the top of the next water hour. Please be ready by then.”

Ed takes the robes carefully. How can they be the right size? They weren’t exactly fitted for clothing last night. He nods at the man’s words. “Uh, about that. How do we tell the time around here?”

The man looks startled then motions for Ed to step back as he enters the room and walks over to a wheel with waves and numbers on them and a larger dolphin superimposed on them both embedded into the wall. Ed had thought that was nothing more than a confusing piece of art. “The top here, repeats a full hour. Each indication after is a measure of five minutes. At the end of each set of five minutes, a dolphin will rise up from the waves indicating the time has passed. The numbers on the wave faces indicate which point of the hour you’re in. The larger dolphin indicates which hour it is.”

Nothing too different from what he’s used to. He just didn’t recognize it as a clock. Ed nods. “Thank you. We’ll be ready.” The man smiles and Ed closes the door after him when he leaves. He stares at the door then shakes his head.

He unfolds the first set of robes and it’s accented in yellow while the other is a dark blue. Obviously the yellow one is his. They couldn’t have made it all in one day, could they? But then they’re in the middle of a hidden city with sentient mist and foxes. “Hey Mustang, get your lazy ass up. They brought us robes for the day.”

“If you thought I was sleeping, then you don’t know me as well as you presume.” Ed rolls his eyes and throws the other robe over his shoulder at the sound of Mustang’s voice. “It’s rather fetching and might even be to my measurements.”

There’s a stretch of silence as Ed pulls on his robe and he assumes Mustang’s doing the same. Ed stretches his arms out in front of him and twists from side to side. It’s a surprisingly good fit, not too tight or too loose. “Not bad,” he says looking down at himself and the intricate markings that twist and spiral their way along his body.

“Why am I not surprised.” Ed looks up to find Roy looking at him in amusement.

“What? I think it’s fine. You shouldn’t be the one talking. You’ve got red twining through everything like fire.”

“You’re yellow and flashy.” Ed scowls as he moves closer to inspect Mustang’s. It does fit him well, draping in the right places and not too tight or loose like his own. He points at the wave wheel he was shown earlier. 

“Oh, that’s the clock. We’ve got until the big dolphin nose points at the top wave to get ready.”

Roy walks over to it and inspects it far more closely than Ed expects. “They obviously don’t want us to stand out too much from the populace. A contrast with how distinguishing these robes they’ve given are.”

“They can’t hide us completely. People outside of that group last night probably already know we’re here.” Ed shrugs out of his robe and holds it up to look at it. Varying bands of yellow seem to float through the material. It’s beautifully worked and he wants to know how it was done.

“It’s unlikely we’ll be allowed anywhere unescorted.”

Ed lowers the robe then grins at Roy. “Which means we’ll just need to make the most of our time out in the city. That shouldn’t be too hard.” Between the two of them, they should be more than able to uncover the workings of this place.


	6. Chapter 6

When the time comes, there’s a knock on the door with both Edith and Margaret on the other side, which helps their plans somewhat. After perfunctory morning greetings, Edith wastes little time in requesting Mustang go with her and of course he can’t refuse. She has a nod and a smile for Ed, but it’s obvious she really wants to talk to Mustang. It leaves Ed with no choice but to go with Margaret. He honestly doesn’t give a crap, but he wasn’t under the impression that they needed to be split up to fix whatever the hell is wrong with the city. Mustang’s paranoia must be catching because he’s not happy about them being out of each other’s sight for too long. 

Margaret smiles brightly at him as he steps outside into the hallway. He cranes his neck in the direction Edith and Mustang went and catches a glimpse of Mustang’s back as they disappear down a different hallway. She gives him a knowing smile. “He’ll be fine. Mother only seems scary.”

Ed lets out the breath he’d been holding and smiles back. Thank fuck she’d assumed the wrong thing. Better for them all if she thought he was just put off by her mother instead of worried about Mustang’s safety. She probably didn’t even realize the potential danger he imagined he and Mustang might be in. “Isn’t that always the case with people in power?”

She laughs. “Maybe but I wouldn’t know. I’ve known all of them for my entire life.” She grins at him and motions for them to get moving. They head down the hallway in the opposite direction from Mustang and Edith. “But that’s not why we’re here. Once you’ve fixed things, I’m hoping you can help me convince Mother that the outside world isn’t as bad as she thinks it is.”

“Why does she think that?” They're walking back down the hallways with natural light flooding in. Ed can’t figure out where it’s coming from, but the hallways are decorated with the same taste as the room they’d been shown to last night. Wall hangings and sculptures interspersed with rich colored wood tables.

Margaret casts a furtive look around, but there’s no one in sight. He hasn’t seen anyone at all aside from Jonathan, Edith, and Margaret this morning. They don’t seem to be heading toward the entrance he and Mustang came in last night. So how are they getting to wherever they’re getting? “All the people that’ve ever left have never come back.”

“Really now? No one ever?” Ed’s surprised and a little skeptical. It sounds like quite a few people wanted to leave and have left over the years. For none of them to come back at all, there could be something else going on. 

“Mother doesn’t like there to be talk about it. She wants people to forget about the outside world completely. Especially since the Great Hohenheim himself never came back.”

She guides him down a series of hallways that don’t look familiar, but they all look unfamiliar. They really would have a hard time finding their own way back out. “But why? Don’t people get tired of being cooped up in here all the time? Seeing the same things, the same people? Don’t they wonder about what else could be out there and what new discoveries they could bring back?”

They stop in front of a large painted section of wall that gives a view of the whole city from up higher on the mountainside. Stone pillars like he’d seen on the walk into the city are depicted uniformly along the streets and all around the city. Are those part of how the city hides itself? There’s so little they understand right now, and he has to be careful in how he gets his answers.

Margaret faces him and the fervor of rebellion lights up her eyes as she brings up her clenched hands in a beseeching gesture. “Yes, yes we do! And people petition to leave all the time, but the council only allows a select few to leave every year.” She scowls and shakes her head. “It all requires boring, complicated procedures and days upon days of arguments about who should go and who should stay. It’s all very complicated.” She scrunches her face up in distaste and reaches out to grip Ed’s shoulder. “That’s why we need you and your friend. When you fix the issues with the barrier, it’ll be a sign that the outside world is nothing like what Mother thinks. And you’re of the Great Hohenheim’s blood. Your word has more weight.”

Ed shifts uneasily. For the most part, he tries not to think about Hohenheim and how they’re family. He’s not liking the sheer amount of faith Margaret’s putting in him. He’s someone that just walked into their close knit, protected society, and even if everyone agrees he's Hohenheim’s son it’s not gonna make everyone happy, especially if he throws in with Margaret’s side in letting people out. He’d understand it from people like Mustang or his unit who’ve known for years, but this girl who he’s barely known for two minutes doing the same? He has a bad feeling about it all. “I’ll try my best, but if this debate’s been going on in your city for what sounds like forever, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”

“As long as you try.” The light in her eyes hasn’t dimmed at all. If anything it’s shored up by even more determination. It reminds him of Mustang and his desire to make Amestris a better place, but that required a bloody revolution and the coming together of very different factions. He hopes it doesn’t come to that here because he and Mustang will be caught up right in the middle with no allies and no escape.

He gives her a grin that he hopes is reassuring. “I’ll give it my best shot, but you should still be prepared for things to go wrong. Changing long held opinions never happens like you think it will. Either both sides have to be ready to make concessions or one side overthrows the other.” She’s young, but he was even younger when he blazed his own path through Amestris.

“The only concession ever made was allowing a few people to leave each year and with all the trouble that comes with it.” She throws a hand at the painting of the city. “This is all we’re allowed to see. It’s not enough! Your coming here is the perfect time for us to fight for more. If you hadn’t come, what would’ve happened to us? Forced out to find a way to save ourselves or trapped in a dying city?”

Death by refusal to leave the city or panicked exodus into an outside world they have no idea about. It wouldn’t be pretty, and it’d probably end up killing a lot of them too. “Take it easy. I’m on your side and Mustang is too, but it’s not gonna be a quick process.” Revolution isn’t as simple and easy as it appears on the surface. Years after the Promised Day they're still trying to forge a better Amestris.

So much for avoiding getting caught up in the middle of this revolution, and one they have no control over. The last time they’d planned for months and even as the plan fell apart on the streets of Central, at least they were on familiar ground. They have none of that here. 

A smile breaks over her face and she throws herself at him in a hug, which he returns awkwardly. She pulls back still smiling. “Come now, I need to show you the barrier system and where the issues are and you’ll fix them and then we’ll go speak to Mother.”

Ed can only nod and watch her press her hand to a series of panels in the stone wall next to the painting. A section of what he thought was solid wall moves inward, revealing the entrance to what seems to be a tunnel.

~*~*~*~

The tunnels take them directly to the outer boundaries of the city and into the domain of Marissa who oversees the city’s protection measures. The walk there isn’t overly long, but it isn’t short either. Margaret fills the time with the city’s history, the barriers, and occasional stories about those who left for the outside world. She wishes he could meet some of those that still desire greater access to the outside world, but the tunnels are too well protected for them to come see him.

They emerge from the tunnels onto a broad, flat clearing much like the one he and Mustang camped in. It’s surrounded by the walls of the mountain rising on each side, but instead of an unbroken surface, several arched doorways yawn open. The protections are built within the mountainside. That would explain the seamless way things were hidden in plain sight. Ed’s still not sure how they managed to pull off the solid feeling of the mountainside. Maybe he’ll find out shortly.

To his left, there’s a nondescript building that fits in well with the surroundings. It has none of the decorations or personality the buildings in the city had. People bustle back and forth with satchels and shovels or rakes thrown over their shoulders. He sees a mix of men and women, easy to tell apart by the differing colors on their clothes but only barely. The colors that surround him here are much more closely matched than those he saw arrayed around the dining table last night.

“That’s the repair building. Everything that might be needed to repair the barrier stones can be found within them.” Margaret waves at people she knows and they give her a warm smile back. They look at Ed with curiosity and wariness. They probably know everyone in the city and even in his borrowed robes he must stand out as foreign. “Maintenance on the barrier is an ongoing thing. There’s always something to do.”

Other workers only greet them with polite nods and the respect Edith’s daughter deserves but not an inch more. She doesn’t seem to notice and Ed would bet she’s used to it, but he doesn’t like it at all. Margaret’s the face of those wanting to explore the outside world. She’s probably built up a lot of anger and resentment in those that don’t want more contact with the outside world.

Margaret takes him up to Marissa’s office where he’s greeted relatively warmly and told of the issues they’ve been having with the barriers. There are weak spots across the network of alchemical arrays that power the barrier protections with no discernible cause. They’ve had their best alchemical scientists go to those spots and found nothing. They’ve examined every inch of the network and still have no idea what could be wrong with it.

Ed’s goal will be trying to figure out what’s wrong when people that know this place inside and out haven’t been able to. Talk about setting someone up for failure. He pastes an interested look on his face and nods in the right places. It turns out after a childhood of wandering the tunnels with assorted people Margaret knows them as well as anyone and she’ll be his guide.

He’s handed a map and a repair satchel filled with the usual tools. He has no idea what they expect him to do with it. It’s not like he’s trained in the same repair methods they are. He tucks the map into one of the satchel pockets and takes a quick look at the tools inside. Chalk, handheld rake, brushes of various sides, polish, cloths of various materials. He can’t make any sense of it. What makes up the barrier arrays? How do they do maintenance on them?

Marissa walks them to the tunnel mouth where the majority of the weak spots come from and she clasps Ed by the shoulders. “I have faith in you.” She smiles and then heads back to the repair building. He and Margaret watch her go for a moment then turn to head into the tunnel. 

“What are the other tunnels for?”

“The daily functioning of the city,” Margaret says. “They haven’t been impacted at all by weird fluctuations and no one knows why.”

His shoulders itch from the stares boring into his back. They don’t let up until they can’t be seen from outside the tunnel. He rubs the back of his neck. “It always that…hostile?”

“Sometimes.” Margaret shrugs. “They’re very protective of these tunnels and they don’t like non-professionals wandering through them much less people from the outside world.”

“Still that obvious, huh?” Ed says ruefully.

“The tailors did their best, but in this city everyone knows everyone. A new face is hard to miss.” Margaret chuckles. “And those robes don’t exactly make you blend in.”

Ed plucks at it and snorts. “No kidding.” He glances around and instead of the darkness he was expecting, the tunnel’s brightly lit with lights strung up along the ceiling. Handrails are built into the walls too he assumes in cases the lights go out. He doesn’t see anything resembling arrays or anything at all that might be what he’s here to fix, not without tearing the place down around their ears anyway.

Their steps don’t echo off the walls and it’s nothing like any of the caves or crevices he’s wandered into before. He has half a mind to ask about the dryness when they come upon an alcove set off to the left with a sign. Ed can’t quite read what it says since it’s written in that script he doesn't know but still feels familiar.

“This isn’t one of the spots having issues, but maybe you’d like a look?” Ed nods and follows Margaret inside. “Since I’m my mother’s heir, I need to have knowledge of all the different areas that help the city function. I admit I’m more fascinated by the tunnels than anything else.”

Before them is a circular area filled with sand and a dais rises out of the middle. To reach the dais there’s a suspended pathway built out from where he and Margaret stand now. She points to the dais. “The arrays are carved into the stone there and flow down the sides into the sand. The tunnel workers are tasked with keeping the lines in the sand straight. There are also arrays that help keep the tunnels dry that need monitoring. It’s not much of a hardship since few people are allowed in here and the arrays rarely change.”

“The sand’s to allow any changes? But if the dais array is permanently etched then how can the sand be changed without breaking the array?”

“Ah, but that’s not completely true.” They walk along the raised platform to the dais and Margaret points out the barely perceptible lines in the surface. “These plates are interchangeable. They can, theoretically, be lifted out and exchanged for others. I don’t believe it’s ever been done except in the rare instances when one’s been damaged.”

“Don’t the different pieces disrupt the flow of energy through the array since the lines aren’t whole?” Ed reaches out to carefully touch his fingers to the edge of the dais’ flat top. He’s not shocked with pain so he rubs his fingers along the rounded edge.

“Yes, but there’s some inherent property of the plate material that bypasses that requirement. They’re carved from the stone of the mountain and it hasn’t been discovered how, but it’s as if the rock channels and amplifies the alchemic energy. We constantly see people probing the limits of the rock, but since samples are strictly controlled, the limits of the rock aren’t usually tested.”

“How are alchemical advances made then?”

“We’ve become accustomed to working within the confines of our current knowledge. Advances still happen, but couldn’t you imagine all that could be discovered if we didn’t treat the rocks like such precious commodities? If we could only explore the outside world?”

Ed doesn’t like this train of thought. She might ask him to create an array to break down the barrier permanently and where would that leave him? In a position that’s even more precarious than it is right now. He steps closer to the dais and examines it closely. It’s built of the same sandy colored stone that surrounds them. There’s no inherent protection laced into the stone. They rely on human security and the fear of what might happen if someone tampered with the barrier. Anyone could still wander in and do something with no one the wiser. It’s probably what’s happened to make the barrier reach this unstable, weakened state. 

The dais is far from uniform. The edges of the top where the array pieces fit may be rounded but the rest looks like it was shaped directly from the mountainside and merely extracted. Ed wonders how these daises and the array pieces were made. It’s intricate work especially when the amplification properties of the sand are also thrown in. It’s a complex thing he’d love to learn more about, but first he needs to figure out what’s wrong. “At some point, you’ll have to explain how any of this was created. We should get to the problem daises now that I have a general idea of how things work.”

They head back into the tunnels and go deeper until they come to one where the array is weaker for some reason. Ed walks up to the dais and examines it. He traces the array lines from one plate to another and they seem to connect like he’d seen on the first one. He then follows the lines down the sides of the dais into the side. Each side looks pristine and exactly like it should. No one would be able to change the array on the dais sides without it being obvious.

He sits back on his haunches after peering into the sand and pulls the satchel in front of him. It’s time to see if he can use anything in there. Rake, brushes, cloths, nope, nope, nope. What the hell would he use them for? The sand is in perfectly straight lines. The dais top looks shined within an inch of its life and the sides of it are untouchable. He fingers a long metal tool with a flat hook on one end that might be used for levering the plate pieces out of the dais, but he can’t be sure. He looks up at Margaret watching him from the alcove entrance. “How are the arrays turned off and on?”

“A red lodestone gets placed into the sand to gather and redirect the energy while whatever changes are necessary are made to the dais plate pieces.” The Aerugian amplifiers may be offshoots of the city’s lodestone and if they ever get out of here, Ed’s going to figure out a way to learn about both.

There’s nothing useful in the satchel that’ll help him figure out what’s wrong so he goes back to examining the dais by sight and touch. He doesn’t find anything and visits to the other alcove daises don’t turn up anything either. It’s a fruitless day and Ed’s frustration mounts. It’s alchemy. He should be able to figure out what’s going on. After several more few hours, Margaret suggests they head back and Ed grudgingly agrees. On the way back they stop at one of the problem daises and one of the normal ones so Ed can make sketches of the arrays. There has to be something he’s missing and maybe if he spends some time with them on paper he’ll be able to figure out what it is. Mustang’ll be there too and with the two of them working on it, they should be able to figure it out.


	7. Chapter 7

Roy returns to the room disgruntled because while it’d been a productive day he hadn’t done what he’d set out to do. Edith had absconded with him to talk about the outside world instead of showing him the issues with the barrier. He runs a hand through his hair and pushes the door open to find Ed sitting at the table with paper spread out all around him. A scowl of frustration mars his face. “You look like you didn’t have any better luck today than I did.”

Ed looks up and throws himself back in the chair then wads up a piece of paper to chuck across the room. “I couldn’t find shit wrong with the barrier arrays! And this is after all their resident experts have examined them and found shit too.” He shakes his head and tilts the chair back onto two legs. “How the hell am I supposed to fix things when I can’t figure out what’s wrong in the first place?”

Roy winces as Ed lets the chair slam back to the ground and shoves out of it to pace the room. “At least you saw what was causing the issue. I was stuck discussing the outside world.” He pulls the robe over his head and tosses it on the back of a nearby armchair. He’s glad to be out of it. While initially novel, it’d gotten irritating as the day wore on.

Ed only stops momentarily in his pacing. “All day? Edith must really want to know about the outside world.”

“Somewhat. She was rather focused on why the people that’ve left over the years haven’t returned. She has this notion that the outside world is full of nothing but danger and evil.” Roy walks over to the table and shifts some of the papers around to see what has Ed so frustrated. In the table’s center, on the back of a map, are two drawn arrays that look identical. The papers strewn around the rest of the table are line by line breakdowns of the arrays with scribblings about meanings and representations jotted all over. “Are these the barrier arrays?”

“Yeah, and I couldn’t find anything wrong with them! The one on the left is the one that’s normal. The one the right is from one of the messed up daises.” Ed continues prowling around the room, and Roy wishes he could’ve seen these for himself. Flipping through Ed’s notes, it's obvious he’s thoroughly dissected each and Roy can’t see anything wrong with his logic.

“Tell me more about them.” Ed huffs and stalks over to throw himself onto the bed where he wraps his arms around a pillow and glares at him over the top. Roy moves over to sit on the bed with Ed and cards a hand through his loose hair. Ed’s wound tight with tension and under his touch Ed slowly relaxes. What Roy hears about the tunnel system, their maintenance, and the appearance of the array daises has him wishing even more fervently Edith hadn’t detained him in discussion all day.

“I’m missing something, Mustang. I know I am. It’s staring me right in the face and I can’t see it.” Ed looks up at him with burnt gold eyes and Roy slides his fingers down Ed's face.

“I know. From your notes, it looks like you deconstructed every line without an issue. That would imply there’s something in the sand or the dais that’s causing the issue.” Roy tugs on a strand of Ed’s hair and smiles at the scowl he gets in response. “You said the arrays were powered?”

“Yeah, so I couldn’t do much about it without fucking up their barrier. They have this red lodestone thing that’s used to turn off the array when they need to.”

“It seems like we’ll be asking to borrow that tomorrow.”

“We? Won’t Edith abduct you again to question you about the outside world?” Roy looks toward the ceiling and sighs.

“I sincerely hope not. That wasn’t the point of us being brought here. I can understand why Margaret is so eager to push for greater access to the outside world. She and her mother share an equal amount of fascination with it. They just come to it from different perspectives. Margaret has all the wonder untainted by disappointment while Edith has all the suspicions and doubts.”

“It’s a good thing you’re here to persuade her otherwise then.” Ed rolls over onto his back and grabs Roy’s hand to trace with his fingers. “Just our luck to wind up right in the middle of another revolution, isn’t it?”

“Yes, rather so.” Ed’s stomach takes the moment to growl and Roy’s isn’t discreet in joining in. “Have they sent dinner?”

“Not yet, but probably soon.” Ed pauses. “So you’ll be joining me tomorrow to ask them for the lodestone?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” It’s going to be explosive and that’s without Ed as part of the argument. Regardless, he’s going to get a chance to look at those barrier daises himself. Edith's not going to waylay him tomorrow.

~*~*~*~

In the morning, Edith accompanies them to the tunnels and for that Roy's glad. They'll need her support to gain use of the lodestone. It's the only way they'll be able to determine what's causing the instability in the barrier. Once they arrive broaching the topic with Marissa isn't an issue. Even Edith seems to agree by nodding her assent to the plan, but Marrisa's underling, Ethan, is another story altogether.

“They’re outsiders! What right do they have to use something few of us have ever used?” Ethan's short, dark hair musses as he shakes his head vehemently. “What if it’s a trick to destroy the barrier completely? What about that?” He’s red in the face and the look in his slate grey eyes is of blind hatred rather than sound reason.

He and Ed aren’t even a part of this argument and it’s already escalated to shouting on Ethan’s part, however Edith maintains her calm demeanor. Roy can see why she’s the leader of the city. Margaret has a stubborn set to her chin that reminds him all too much of Ed and interjects when she can with her own, logical, arguments. If she’s anything like her mother, and all indications point that way, the city has a prosperous future ahead of it.

Ed appears not to be paying attention at all as he scribbles on some paper about the lodestone’s properties and possible associations with the amplifiers they were originally chasing down, but Roy knows he has one ear focused on the argument. A lull has Ed interjecting with, “Edith, Margaret, and Marissa are gonna be right there with us. What are we gonna do with them right there?”

Ethan looks at each of them in turn then locks gazes with Ed. He struggles to find something, anything, to say to counter the simple logic. He throws out a “You’ll regret this!” Then strides from the room. They watch him go with mixed expressions.

“Well, now that that’s settled. Shall we go see if things can be fixed?” Edith says with a serene smile.

Roy pushes to his feet and nods. “I do hope the others don’t object to our presence as much as Ethan does.”

“Don’t mind him. He’s always been a bit more narrow minded than most.” Edith looks at Marissa. “Yes, if you would get the lodestone and, Margaret, if you’d fetch satchels for Edward and Roy.”

From there they set off for the tunnels and once they reach one of the alcoves Roy finally sees what Ed described. It’s an amazing feat of alchemical ability and ingenuity. The stone and sand as amplifiers and the array plates…. Roy would dearly love to bring that knowledge back with him to Amestris. There are great many uses he could find for them.

Ed wants to use the lodestone on a normally functioning array so they can see how it should look. They watch as Marissa walks down into the sand pit and under the raised platform to place the lodestone into a notch on the bottom of the dais. Nothing happens for a moment, but then there’s a pulse of light that surrounds the dais. The light shoots downward to focus in the lodestone and the sand begins to glow. He assumes that means the array’s energy is being maintained down there instead of through the dais and it’s safe to dismantle it.

There are shocked gasps from Edith and Margaret. This might be the first time in living memory the lodestone has been used. Ed wastes no time in moving to the dais and uses the plate remover to pull the plates from their positions. Roy moves up to help him and to ensure they return them to their proper places afterward.

The plates are heavy in his hands but smooth to the touch. Their surface is unmarred aside from the lines etched for the array. They have slots and prongs along their sides that allow them to fit tightly together with the other pieces in place of a locking mechanism. It’s an ingenious design.

A shallow cavity lies under the plates and it’s as pristine as everything else they’ve seen. Ed sticks his face over the top and peers intently down at it before he skims his fingers over the surface. Roy steps closer and watches him probe a series of holes. “Channels to further direct the array?”

He receives a nod in response then Ed’s reaching into the satchel slung over his shoulders to pull out a silver colored cloth to rub over the entire thing. “So that’s how it looks from the inside. Now, hopefully we’ll be able to see how the others are wrong.”

They barely know enough to live up to their promise to fix things, not that they wanted to make the promise at all. It was foisted on them just by the value of Ed’s relation to Hohenheim. It makes Roy uneasy because what if they repeat the same process with the daises that are malfunctioning and find nothing? How are they going to save themselves or the city then?

It’s a slow, delicate process in reassembling the array plates. Roy pulls out his own cloth to help ensure the plates return as pristine as they came out. He and Ed both take a close look at the array once the plates are settled back in just to be certain nothing’s amiss. Ed traces the lines with his eyes then his fingers as if imprinting it onto his mind. “Satisfied, Edward?”

“Not yet. Once we figure out what’s messing with the rest of them.”

“Only one way to do that.”

Ed nods then moves back down the platform and gestures for Marissa to remove the lodestone. Roy’s curious about how that’s going to come about. The sand still pulses with the flow of alchemy through it and he doubts yanking the lodestone out right now would bode well for any of them or the barrier itself.

Marissa hasn’t strayed far from where she’d stood when she’d initially placed the lodestone. She takes a step forward then presses her hands to either side of the setting. Her eyes close and nothing happens, but then the sand starts to pulse with a softer light until the energy is focused within the lodestone again. The light continues to recede and washes up the sides of the dais until there’s barely a pinprick of it left within the lodestone. Light breaks out across the top of the dais and flows into the etched lines of the plates, flaring brightly for a moment, then it diffuses.

Roy blinks at the sudden lack of brightness and rubs at his eyes. “Well then.” Ed makes a harrumph sound and they both glance toward Marissa. There’s a light sheen of sweat on her brow, but she’s no worse for the wear. She gently pries the lodestone from its setting and carefully pockets it.

“Shall we continue, gentlemen?”

Edith leads the way further into the tunnels to the closest dais that’s proven troublesome while Margaret proceeds to question Marissa in detail about the lodestone. Roy listens in shamelessly and files all the knowledge away for him and Ed to discuss later in case an opportunity to study the city’s technological advances doesn’t present itself.

This time Ed truly isn’t paying attention to the conversation going on around him. The intent look on his face and the movement of his lips though he doesn’t really speak let Roy know he’s focused on the issue of the daises and what they might find once they dismantle the other one.

They repeat much of the previous procedure when they reach the next dais, but instead of the sand pulsing with a clear light there’s a sickly tinge of red. It brings a look of concern onto all their faces. It only gets more interesting when they start to remove the array plates. Initially they appear and feel as pristine as those from the previous dais, but as they begin to pull the plates off the dais they see strands of fiber crisscrossed under them. They fill the shallow cavity and clearly form another array.

Marissa walks up beside them and her face hardens. “It’s an energy siphon array.” She looks far from pleased and if the culprit is ever found Roy has no doubts the punishment will be severe. She reaches a hand out but stops short of touching the fibers. “These…look like fox hairs.”

Ed and Roy exchange a look then they’re putting their faces as close to the dais top as they dare. He can’t be absolutely certain, but he thinks he can make out gold and black fibers twisted together. “Bastard,” Ed murmurs. “The array should be inactivated, right? Since we have the lodestone in the dais?”

“Yes, that’s the general theory,” Marissa says. How did they not inspect the daises with the lodestone before? Or had the culprit simply been more cunning in the beginning and now had grown careless?

Ed yanks at some of the threads and instead of pulling free from the dais like expected it twists as if anchored. He curses under his breath and keeps the section he pulled raised in the air then traces over the fibers. “It’s threaded throughout the whole dais, down into those holes the other one has.” Ed looks at him. “Mustang?”

He has to fiddle with getting his hand under his robe and into the pocket where he keeps his ignition glove. From there it’s simple to pull it on and snap his fingers to bring a flame just hot enough to incinerate the fibers while doing no harm to the dais. 

Once the fibers are gone the sand glows as purely as it did on the normally functioning dais. “It looks like we’re going to be rather busy today.”

Edith and Margaret look immensely relieved while Marissa has a pensive look on her face. “Edith, we’ll need to investigate Elijah and Dominick.”

Edith’s expression changes instantly. “Let’s first focus on restoring the full power of our barrier. We’ll do what we must afterwards.”

The rest of the day is spent going to all the daises with power issues and restoring them to their proper function. They settle into a rhythm, but it’s not quick work. The plates are too precious to be handled roughly and the tunnels feel endless. When the last dais is finally restored, their tired group heads back to the repair building and that’s when everything comes to a head.


	8. Chapter 8

They step out of the tunnels into a haze of mist, familiar sights for him and Mustang, but not what they expected at the end of today. The wide plain they’d gazed across to the tunnel entrances is obscured by mist. The repair building isn’t even visible anymore. He and Mustang move toward the front of the group without a word to place themselves between the women and any threats.

Edith storms past them and shouts, “Elijah, Dominick, show yourselves! We know it’s you! You’re the only ones with control of the mist and the foxes!”

Laughter echoes from around them and a section of the mist clears slightly to reveal a figure striding into view. “You think those fools would dare dream up something like this? They’re as blind as you are, Edith. Following you without a thought to what harm could come back to the city by letting people leave.”

“Ethan?” Marissa steps forward. “But why? It doesn’t harm anyone by letting a few of us out every year to explore the world. It’s not like they…come back.” Horror dawns on her face. “How could you? They were our own people!”

“They would only bring destruction upon us all!” Ethan raises his hands and thunder crashes around them. Ed jumps and before he knows it alchemy’s crackling on his hands. How the hell is the asshole controlling the mist? Ed can’t see any arrays and at this distance anything they throw at him he’s gonna coming long before it reaches him. “Fools! You welcome outsiders in like they’re friends when now they stand against me, one of your own.”

The women glance at him and Mustang, but don’t bat an eye. It’s Edith that responds, “They helped us! More than can be said for you. What did you do to the barrier?”

“I only used it for what it was: might. I stopped threats from ever coming to fruition.” Ethan waves his hands and the mist starts to drift among them, benign, until it wraps itself around Edith. “You will learn the true potential of the innovations we have at our hands.”

Margaret and Marissa rush to Edith and struggle to rip the mist off her but their actions have no effect. Ed looks at Mustang. They can’t do anything with their alchemy, not without risking Edith, and they both know that the mist is unaffected by it anyway. Ed stalks forward past the struggling women and shouts, “You’re nothing but a coward! Too afraid of what you don’t know to learn about it. Instead you’d rather kill people then let them explore the outside world and come back!”

They are shouts behind him and he hears Mustang call for him, but the mist swirls around him and obscures them from his sight. Margaret cries out and shouts she’s been caught too. Marissa’s voice joins her not long after. “Outsider, what do you know about us? Our culture? Our city?” The voice echoes from all around him. “Nothing. Nothing at all, yet you seek to show us the error of our ways?”

Wild, maniacal laughter rings in his ears and Ed twists around in the swirling pink clouds. There’s not much he can do, but he has to try. The crackle of alchemy fills the air and he’s reaching into the mist to pull charge from the water particles then sends it arcing in the direction of the voice.

“Do you think your paltry little tricks can harm me? I am the master of this domain! I control the mist and everything in this place.” Ed hears footsteps coming through the mist and he darts away from them. The mist is flimsier than he would expect from Ethan trying to box him in. He careens off firm surfaces and he has no idea where he’s even going. All he can see around him is mist and more mist.

There’s fwhooom of fire from somewhere and a section of the mist flares bright yellow much like it had when he and Mustang had first encountered it. He winces. The mist doesn’t want this if what they felt from it before was any indication. It’s just being twisted to Ethan’s purposes. They’re fighting air essentially and with Ethan in control of the strings Ed has no idea how they’re going to get out of this.

He shouts for Mustang and the others, but he gets no reply. If anything his shouts are deadened by the mist. He continues to run through it, looking for some sort of weakness, anything he can use to get to Mustang and the others or just to get out. It clings to him in a way that makes his skin crawl. The fluffy cotton feeling that it’d had before is gone replaced with a slimey, clinging sensation. Ed scowls and wants to smash his fist into Ethan’s face.

“Fuck you, Ethan! Fuck you for making the mist do your dirty work!” Ed stops and spins in a circle, his hands in fists at his side, as he shouts. “Not even man enough to do it yourself!”

He won’t go without a fight, but he doesn’t see how they’re going to get out of this. He and Mustang are gonna end up like all those others that dared to see the outside world and he has no idea what Ethan’s going to do with Edith, Margaret, or Marissa. Maybe there’s still something else in the strange alchemical abilities of the city that’ll allow them to leave, if only under Ethan’s control.

Ed drops to the ground and sends pillars of earth shooting into the mist. Maybe somehow he can spot a weakness in the mist and get himself out of this fucked up mess. He can’t hear anything but his own breathing. Ethan’s gone silent and that worries Ed more. He’s up to something and whether that involves Mustang or the women Ed has no idea. At least when Ethan was shouting at him he was focused on Ed and no one else.

He wasn’t expecting much, but when the spikes of earth do nothing but make the mist swirl harder he swears loudly. Not like anyone can hear him. It’s not his favorite thing to do and he usually leaves it to Mustang, but he scrambles to reach under his robe for an old lighter Mustang gave him for situations like these. He claps his hands together then flicks the lighter and generates flames to flare out in all directions around him. The mist just bursts out into horrible shades of yellow and he snarls.

Nothing, nothing, fucking nothing! And how the fuck is he getting out of this?

He’s using every array that comes to mind, but the mist isn’t doing anything other than swirling around him. All the alchemy at his hands and he can’t do jackshit to get himself out of this. There’s a sharp yip of sound and he’s probably just hearing things. He sends the ground rocketing upwards, twining the chunks of ground with superheated air and in his surprise the mist fades back.

Ed pushes to his feet and looks at it suspiciously. He starts when the black fox trots out of the thinning mist and yips at him again. Is this a trick? A trap set by Ethan? They were guided into the city by the foxes before. Can he trust it?

Another short bark of a sound. “Screw it. What the fuck do I have to lose?” He glares around at the mist once more than shrugs and moves toward the fox. It doesn’t move until Ed’s only a few steps behind it then it bounds directly into the thinning mist. He can do nothing but follow. He gets the sense they’re moving in a circle but whether that’s a good thing or not he can only guess.

The fox slows to a walk then to a stealthy shuffle with one of its ears constantly pinned back toward Ed. The low murmur of a man’s voice drifts to Ed and as they get closer he’s sure it’s Ethan. But how is this happening? The mist was supposed to be under Ethan’s control? Is it more sentient than anyone realizes?

The fox drops to a crouch in front of him and Ed’s practically on top of Ethan. He hasn’t been seen or sensed and this is his opportunity. He needs to take Ethan out. He creeps as close to the misty boundary between him and Ethan as he can then waits. The man’s pacing in front of the three mist shackled figures of Edith, Margaret, and Marissa. They’re struggling against their bonds, but Ethan pays them no mind.

He’s muttering low under his breath, turning occasionally to address one of them and says something Ed doesn’t catch. He’s not sure, but there might be arrays scratched into the ground in front of each of them. Ed waits until Ethan’s got his back turned then he launches out of the mist with a yell.

A kidney punch, hard, brutal, and efficient takes Ethan down even as he half spins to face Ed. His features are contorted in a mask of rage and Ed snarls. They go down in a heap of tangled limbs and rage. Ed pummels Ethan every chance he gets. There’s only way this is gonna end and he’s not gonna be on the losing side.

He feels more than sees heavy objects fly from Ethan’s pockets and then there’s a hand wrapped around his neck, squeezing tight. He chokes for breath and all he can see is bits and pieces of Ethan. He’s too close to focus on. Ed kicks and struggles and suddenly he’s ripped free. He drops to the ground, coughing so hard it feels like he’s about to lose a lung. His head’s swimming and he drags himself to his feet. It’s not over. Not yet.

He wipes the back of his hand across his mouth and focuses his watering eyes on the collapsed heap of Ethan sprawled limp on the ground. Mustang’s standing over him with a vicious look on his face and his foot pressed against Ethan's throat. The foxes, black and gold, snarl at Ethan and kick dirt on him before they move back to sit just at the edge of the mist surrounding them.

Something barrels into his side and Ed looks to see Margaret hugging him tightly. He returns the hug awkwardly and shuffles them closer toward Mustang. Edith and Marissa are on his other side, none the worse for wear it looks like, and they nod at him. Ed glances down at Ethan and he’s still breathing at least. He doesn’t deserve to die without answering for his crimes.

Ed has to clear his throat twice before he can speak. “Thank fuck the mist and foxes were on our side.”

Mustang arches an eyebrow at him. "Did you forget who pulled Ethan off you, Edward?"

Ed rolls his eyes and waves a hand at him. "Thought that was just part of your job description." Mustang snorts but lets it go for now. Ed catches Edith exchanging a look with Marissa out of the corner of his eye. Ed’s too tired to even try to puzzle out what it means. It’s over and that’s all that matters.


	9. Chapter 9

They take Ethan back to the community hall in makeshift shackles from the supplies in their bags. He's sullen and unhelpful, dragging his feet and doing anything to slow their progress. He attempts several escapes that succeed in only making him appear more disheveled than he already is. Marissa may appear like a delicate woman but she is no one to be trifled with. She takes down Ethan with an effortless grace that fills Roy with envy.

Edith's sent Margaret ahead of them to alert the rest of the guild members and prepare appropriate accommodations for Ethan. Roy's curious about what they might be. They weren't shown the more mundane aspects of the City like police stations or the jails where delinquents would be held. Even a city as filled with promise like this one still contains people at its center.

Ed's been far too quiet on this walk back and Roy moves closer to rest a hand on his shoulder. "Edward?"

He looks up at Roy and gives a faint smile. "I'm fine, Mustang. Just tired."

There's more to it, Roy's certain, and likely has to do with Ethan's careless disregard for the lives of his own people. Ed's never been one for that type of thing, though Roy's seen plenty of that himself over the course of his years in the military.

When they reach the community hall, Elijah and Dominick greet them with grim expressions. They take charge of Ethan and guide him further into the building with few words said between them. It's at this point Edith turns to Ed and him and gathers them into a hug. "Thank you both. I suggest we all retire to our rooms and recover." She pulls back with a drawn smile then excuses herself.

It's Marissa that accompanies them to their door. Ed nods at her before disappearing inside while Roy takes another moment. "I have a feeling things are far from settled."

"Of course." Marissa glances back down the hallway. "Edith will be deciding how to inform our City of everything that's occurred. They deserve to know." She sighs and crosses her arms, tucking her hands into the sleeves of her robe. "And then there is the matter of what to do with Ethan. He has much to answer for." She looks at him and smiles. "But enough with that. You have helped us immensely. I shouldn't bother you with our troubles any longer. Rest and tomorrow we will speak again."

~*~*~*~

Roy wakes much later than he expected if he's reading the water clock properly. Ed's still a lump of heat buried under the covers next to him, which he gives a prod and receives a grunt in return. He eases from bed and finds the means for making tea on a side table. He's sipping at his first cup when there's a knock at the door. Ed rolls free of the covers and blinks, wobbling over to the table to steal Roy's tea while he goes to answer the door.

It's Edith and while still regal looking as always she looks like she got little sleep last night. "I'd appreciate it if you both could join us in the meeting hall when you're ready. We've come to several decisions and would like you present to hear them before we make any announcements to the people."

"Of course. We'd be honored," Roy says. He feels Ed come up beside him and glances to see him cradling the tea in both his hands.

"Yes, we would." Ed's stomach takes the moment to growl and he flushes slightly. 

Edith grins. "I've had breakfast sent for and Jonathan will come for you when it's time." 

She departs and breakfast arrives shortly after, which they make short work of and even before the first bite Ed's peppering him with questions about what he thinks might happen. "Do you think they'll really tell everyone what Ethan was up to? Or let us study their alchemy? Maybe we can establish an alliance with them?"

Roy can't get in a word and mostly lets Ed talk to himself. His mind's racing along too fast for discussion anyway. His words do cause Roy to pause for thought. If they do end up with an alliance out of this situation, then it'll be another achievement to further his rise to Fuhrer. Another instance where things fell into his lap as Hawkeye would say.

He gazes at Ed and knows that without him none of this would've happened. His life after meeting Ed has never been the same as it was before. He reaches out and covers one of Ed's hands with his own. "Edward." He waits til Ed looks at him. "We'll find out soon enough."

Roy receives a suspicious look in return, but Ed subsides for now and focuses on shoveling in the rest of his meal. Once done, Ed uses alchemy to freshen their dusty robes before they slip back into them. Jonathan arrives and escorts them to the meeting hall where all the faces they saw their first night here are present again. They're offered seats and only then does Edith speak.

Ethan's crimes will be announced to the City later that day in the central plaza, and he will be jailed for the rest of his life. With the shifting around the table, Roy has the feeling not all were in favor of that outcome. Edith continues on and says they would like to develop relations with the outside world starting with the place Roy and Ed come from.

Ed grins, sharp and bright, beside him and there will be many trips back to the City of Hohenheim for him in the future. Maybe Roy will even get the full story behind the strained relationship between Ed and his father. An exchange of knowledge and technology between their countries will be established, which will only enrich them both.

It will be a slow process opening up the City of Hohenheim to the outside world. It always is when it comes to government and drastic change but with Edith leading them Roy doesn't foresee too many problems. No one can avoid them all.

Roy blinks at the mention of a celebration in their honor over the next few days and he attempts to back out of it when Ed elbows him in the side. "Just accept it, bastard. Let them celebrate. Wouldn't we do the same in their place?"

He shoots a look at Ed then inclines his head. "Yes, we would, but it still feels inappropriate after all that's happened."

"Or it could be a better way to mark the beginning of a new period in the City's history."

Roy arches an eyebrow. "I thought you hated this place."

Ed shrugs and discreetly laces their hands together under the table. "Maybe it grew on me just like a certain bastard."

He snorts but squeezes Ed's hand back. It looks like they'll be remaining in the City of Hohenheim for several more days. It'll give Roy the opportunity to return with some alchemical knowledge in addition to the political alliance they've forged. Never say Roy Mustang doesn't achieve the things he sets out to do even if they don't always go the way he originally planned.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and concrit are always loved and appreciated. :)


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